Schizothermia
by midgeteen
Summary: "You stole my staff." "No, it hit me in the face." "Then, you stole it." "Well, it shouldn't have been hitting me in the face!" Jack/OC
1. Chapter One

_**A/N: I gave in — I **_**had**_** to write a fanfiction. I'm too in love with this fandom to **_**not**_** write one. Sorry that the idea is kinda overused by now, but I'm trying. Anyways, hopefully you enjoy! And I don't own Rise of the Guardians or any of its elements. I only own the things I make up. :3 Thank you!**_

* * *

_Chapter One_

_A Wild Stick Appears_

* * *

That awkward moment when a random stick pops out of a hole in the ground and hits your forehead going fifty miles an hour. Yeah, welcome to the life of Samantha Coleman.

"_Ouch_!" came her shrill squeal when the stick popped out of the ground and into her forehead. The force was enough to throw her onto her back as the stick landed on her stomach with a light thud. It didn't take five seconds for her to feel the swollen area on her forehead start to bruise. Her hand shot to touch the spot, only for her to hiss in pain and quickly remove her hand. "What the—?"

A stick had popped out of the ground.

Her mind felt as though it had just imploded.

Where in the world had that _stick_ come from?!

Her head was pounding as she leaned up from her spot on the sidewalk, ignoring the weird stares she got for just laying there and grabbing her pulsing head. Some mistook her for a drunken teenager and just steered clear of her, which she was somewhat grateful for. As she leaned up, though, the stick rolled off of her stomach and landed on the concrete next to her. She used her free hand to pick it up and bring it close to her face to examine it. It was just a stick . . . that magically popped out of the ground.

_Well . . . okie dokie then!_

Sam stared at the stick for a moment longer, watching as flashes of blue randomly flowed through it. She rose up to her feet as she continued to analyze it, inclining her head to the side in slight confusion. Since when did sticks light up? And since when did random holes appear out of the ground, sending random sticks flying into random people's faces? In a small state of paranoia, she glanced around herself, twirling around in circles as she made sure that no more random holes were appearing. Then, pulling out her cell phone and seeing the time, she shrieked and made a run for her job.

The curious case of the random hole and stick would have to wait.

* * *

"Who took my staff?"

The room fell silent as the winter spirit stormed into the room fuming.

"Vhat?" North laughed nervously, hands on his hips as he looked anxiously between all of the Guardians that had been called to the room that morning. Sandy shared his mutual confusion with a question mark made of golden sand appearing above his head.

"Who," his jaw locked, "took," stomped forward, "my," and his eyes glanced around at the other four guardians slowly, "staff?"

Tooth was the first to look mildly offended. "Jack! You know I'd never do that!"

He regarded her, then turned his attention to the other three.

North and Sandy exchanged glances before both looked over at Bunnymund, who appeared to be completely disinterested in the conversation at hand. Tooth and Jack also turned their attentions to him and it wasn't until he realized that all eyes were on him when he stopped painting the egg in his hand. "What are we talking about?"

"Jack's staff was stolen," Tooth informed him.

North's eyes narrowed suspiciously at the Australian over-sized bunny. "Did _you_ take Jack's staff?"

Bunnymund didn't even feign innocence. "Yeah, I took it." His interest went back to painting the brightly-colored egg. "What about it?"

Jack, for a winter spirit, was very close to having steam emit from his ears. "_WHAT_?!"

Tooth was quick to act. "Jack! Calm down! Bunnymund is only joking!"

"No, I took it."

"You're not helping!"

Jack stormed over to the bunny and snatched the egg out the bunny's hand. There was a slight protest from him but Jack paid no attention to it, glaring daggers into his eyes. "Where'd you put my staff?!"

Bunnymund growled. "Give me back the egg, Jack, and no one gets hurt."

"Give me back my staff and I won't go smash all of the eggs in the Warren!"

"You _wouldn't_!"

"Jack, Bunny!" North intervened, earning looks from both Tooth and Sandy. He grabbed each of their arms and looked back and forth between them sternly. "You both know better than to act like this. Ve are fellow Guardians! Ve do not take each other's stuff!"

"Tell that to the kangaroo!"

"Watch your mouth, kid. Remember which one of us actually has a weapon."

"Quiet!" North shouted, earning the silence he demanded from the two males. Taking a small intake of breath, he turned calmly to face Bunnymund. "Bunny, vhy did you take Jack's staff?"

"I don't care why he took it! Where did the rodent put it?!"

"Sandy."

At North's word, the Sandman formed a ball of sand in his hand, threatening to throw it at the next person who talked out of turn. That was enough to shut him up.

North calmly looked back to Bunnymund. "Bunny?"

Bunnymund grumbled, "I threw it through a hole. I know where it is."

North nodded. "And you vill take Jack to get his staff back, von't you?"

He reluctantly nodded, still having a glare-down with the winter spirit standing across from him.

North turned calmly to look at Jack. "And Jack, you vill drop this once you get your staff back?"

Jack also, very reluctantly, complied with a nod.

"Good." North let go of both of their arms and Sandy made the ball of sand in his hand disappear. "Now, you shall be on your vay."

Bunnymund and Jack shared one final glare before Bunnymund opened up a hole in the ground and hopped into it, soon followed by Jack. When they were gone, North, Sandy, and Tooth all shared a look. "Easter Sunday," the two speaking guardians agreed, shaking their heads. Bunny would _never_ let that go.

* * *

Sam, now at the cash register of the antique shop, just stared at the stick she had leaned against the corner of the desk she was at. Every time she poked it, flashes of blue would course through the walking stick (which she just assumed it was after staring at it for so long). She wasn't too sure of what to do with it, though.

_I suppose I could ask Mr. Goodwin if he wants to sell it. It's not far off from looking like an antique and it makes an awesome pimp-walker._

Yes, she would know this. Curiosity got the best of her when she was making her way to work.

_Eh. . . . He doesn't sell many walking sticks, though. He'll probably just tell me to throw it away or something._

"What's that?"

_Speak of the devil._

Sam turned her attention to the right where a middle-aged man stood. His hair was thinning and gray, but a hint of his used-to-be blonde hair still shone out in certain lights. His face was covered in wrinkles, no doubt from the stress he was always under, but his eyes were lively and full of emotion which he lacked on his facial features. It took everything in her to stop herself from commenting on how blank his face always remained.

"Uh . . ." Sam, both hands on the edge of the desk as she leaned into them for support, glanced over at the strange stick, "a stick I found."

His head inclined to the side. "Is it a walking stick?"

"Seems like it. I dunno."

"Is it an antique?"

"I dunno."

"How'd you come across it?"

_It flew at my face from a random hole that appeared in the ground._ "I dunno."

"Let me have a look at it."

She handed him the stick.

Mr. Goodwin took the stick in his hands and seemed to not have noticed the blue vibes it sent out like she had. Instead, he just examined it top to bottom and nodded, seemingly pleased with the work that was put into the stick. "I would say that this was very old, indeed, and not some ordinary stick."

"Yeah, could you explain the blue things?" Sam asked, now leaning against the counter with one hand and the other hand on her hip as she stared at the weird stick.

"The what?" Mr. Goodwin gave her a look.

Sam raised an eyebrow at him. "The blue things . . . like, whenever I touch it, blue things shoot through it. See, look." She poked the stick and the blue designs shot through the walking stick.

Mr. Goodwin stared expectantly at the stick, clearly not seeing what she was seeing. He gave her a concerned look. "How much sleep did you get last night, Miss Coleman?"

She narrowed her eyes at the stick, then at Mr. Goodwin. "You don't see it?" She looked back to the stick. "But, I swear—!"

"Keep this behind the counter, Miss Coleman. I have a few errands I need to run. I'll examine it more closely when I get back so that we can put it for sale." Handing the stick back to her, initiating a bunch of more blue sparks running up and down the stick, he fixed his coat and walked out the door.

She stood there, dumbfounded. "What . . . the . . . ?"

* * *

Jack tapped his foot impatiently as Bunnymund stood there, eye twitching. "Where's my staff?" Jack demanded impatiently, clearly not amused by any of this.

Bunnymund rolled his eyes. "I took you to where I sent it, but it appears that someone has picked it up."

"How? Hardly anyone believes in me. The most they could do is trip over it!"

The bunny turned to him. "Why you asking me, mate? If I knew, I'd tell ya!"

Jack huffed loudly, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his hoodie as he twirled around in a circle, as if that would help in finding the stick. "Well, if it's a believer, it might be easier to convince them to give the staff back." He was absolutely powerless without his staff.

Bunnymund felt the need to add in half-amusement, "Unless it's a brat." This earned him a harsh glare from the winter spirit, which he completely ignored.

Jack heaved a sigh. "Let's just . . ." he waved his hand lazily ahead, "go that way. Maybe someone turned it in to the antiques shop or something."

Bunnymund gave a bemused look. "Why would a child go into an antiques shop?"

"The old geezer who owns the place has a grandson who sometimes comes by this way to visit him. He probably was on his way to the shop, found the stick, and took it with him."

The Easter Bunny had half a mind to ask Jack how he even _knew_ about this, but he chose to just keep his mouth closed. He remembered how easily bored the winter spirit got when no one had been able to see him. Even now, when a few kids could see him, he still got bored and walked throughout towns to express his boredom with snowballs. The poor antiques shop probably had a few broken glass windows from the outcome of the teen's boredom.

* * *

Boredom came over Sam as she continued to flick the strange stick just to watch the pretty (but somewhat creepy) blue light emit from it. Mr. Goodwin still wasn't back from running his errands and no one had entered the shop. No one ever really did. No one in Burgess really liked the idea of antiques, anyways. Especially with all of the snow that was falling lately.

Her nose scrunched up at the thought. Sam didn't like the snow very much. She preferred it when she didn't have to wear five layers of clothing just to stay warm.

"Listen, Easter _Kangaroo_, if we don't find my staff—"

"Hush your trap. I don't care. Looks like we're here."

"There's my staff!"

Sam raised an eyebrow as she watched the two cosplayers outside of the window of the store. This day just kept getting weirder and weirder. . . .

The two ran inside, making the bell jingle at the door to announce their presence. Both winced at the noise, clearly caught off guard by the noise.

"_And_ there we go, inserting paranoia into another mortal's life," the rather large man dressed up as a rabbit murmured before turning to face her. She had to give him kudos for the outfit, although it seemed a little strange that he'd be wearing it when Halloween was _weeks_ ago and Christmas was approaching. She could see his spring green eyes behind the furry head and around his chest was a satchel of sorts which held a boomerang on the back, which she only saw because he turned to whisper to the boy, "She's staring, mate. Do ya think she's a believer?"

The boy he addressed was wearing a more normal sort of outfit. He had dyed his hair white and was probably wearing full-body makeup to make his skin pale. There was no way someone could naturally be _that_ pale and not be currently dying of hypothermia. He wore a blue hoodie that had wintery ice design on the shoulders and a pair of pants that looked to be torn and poorly sewn back together on his knee. He was barefoot, much to her surprise, and his feet even had that pale makeup on him.

_These guys did a good job. . . . I wonder what they were for Halloween._

The hypothermia boy whispered back to the large army-rabbit, "If anything, she sees _you._ Try waving and see what happens."

She blinked twice at this. Maybe that boy wasn't pale from makeup, he was probably ultra stoned or something. "Can I help you?"

They stood dead still.

She couldn't keep her mouth from blabbing out, "Are you two stoned or something?"

Still, no response. They just stood there. Well, the mega-rabbit turned around as if to make sure no one else was there for her to be talking to, but there wasn't. She was talking to them — and seemed amused by their reactions.

"You can _see_ us?" the hypothermia stoned boy managed to get out, still shocked by the fact that a girl who looked to be around his age (when he _had_ been a mortal) could see them. Didn't they stop believing around the age of ten or eleven?

"Nope. I'm talking to the fairy behind you," she said with a roll of her eyes.

Both turned around, mentioning something about someone named 'Tooth' having followed them. When they saw that no one was there, they both turned to look at her sheepishly. She felt the sudden need to call the cops. These guys were _out_ of it.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" she repeated herself, eying the boy's hoodie. Her hands twitched as she felt the need to rip it off of him and make a run for it. Sadly, though, that would possibly put her in a cell right next to these two if she did.

The mega-rabbit cleared his throat and spoke in his thick Australian accent, "That stick," he pointed to the one at the counter, "is his," he pointed to the hypothermia boy, who was glaring at him for calling his staff a 'stick'.

She was silent for a moment, trying to think of an intelligent response. "It is?" She glanced at the stick. "Seriously?"

They nodded in unison. "Except, it's a _staff_," the hypothermia boy corrected them, "not a stick."

"What's your stick doing jumping out of random holes in the ground?" she asked, ignoring his correction. She motioned to the bruise on her forehead with her hand.

The mega-Australian-rabbit laughed sheepishly. "Heh . . . heh . . . oops, my fault." She gave him a confused look. "I threw it through one of my holes and it must have . . . came through that one . . . and . . ." he never finished that sentence. Looking between the two others in the room, as both were now staring at him, he gulped nervously and made a hole appear in the ground. "You can take things from here, Jack," and he made a quick escape.

Jack sighed heavily, clearly annoyed, and he turned to look over at the girl at the cash register who now looked almost as pale as he did. "What?"

She opened her mouth, but only the lack of an intelligent language was all he heard. Her hands were wildly motioning to the hole that had appeared in the ground (now gone since Bunnymund had already used it) and she glanced wide-eyed up at him, and down to the hole, then back up to him, as if she needed an explanation.

Again, he asked, "What?" This was weird. Normally, believers never had a mental breakdown over their modes of transportation.

What came out of her mouth next surprised him, as he had spent so much time around kids and the Guardians that he had nearly forgotten that such language was still used in the world. "What was _that_?!" she screamed, backing up against the wall.

He stare casually down at where the hole once was. "What of it?"

"WHY ARE HOLES APPEARING OUT OF THE GROUND TODAY?! AM _I_ THE STONED ONE?!"

Jack stared at the girl having the mental breakdown in astonishment. "Wait, you _do_ know who he is, don't you?"

Her hands went wild in the air. "No! I've never met either of you in my life! I thought you two were just stoners who decided to cosplay or something! I never once thought that _I_ was the stoner, though! When did this happen?!" Her hands were not tangled in her short hair, ruining the style she had given it that day.

. . . This girl wasn't a believer. For some reason, this made him want to laugh.

"How can you see us?" he asked with a small smirk to hold back the laugh, clearly intrigued by this new found information, although still a bit lost himself.

He never got a response from her, though, as the girl finally lost all sense of consciousness and fell to the ground. He made a move to catch her, but never made it before her head hit the ground, leaving him there to just stand awkwardly.

Well, that was not something that happened every day.

Jack felt bad to do this, but as he glanced over his shoulder an saw a middle-aged man making his way to the store, all he could think of doing was grabbing his staff and rushing out the door before anyone else could freak him out that day.

North was going to _love_ this.

* * *

_**This is the end of chapter one. Please leave a review, because that would mean a **_**lot_ to me! Thank you!_**


	2. Chapter Two

**A/N: I am **_**so**_** sorry for such a late update! School is seriously killing me right now with all of this stress, but I'll try my best to keep updates as fast as I can. And ohmygosh! All of those reviews?! Thank you **_**so so so so so so soooo**_** much! Please remember to review again for this chapter! Thank you! :)**

* * *

_Chapter Two_

_Hating on the Snow_

* * *

"Go home and get some rest. A robbery is too much stress for a young one like you." That's what Mr. Goodwin had told her when he got back and managed to wake her up from her fainting episode.

Sam, on the way home, forced herself to push the incident that had happened in the store to the back of her head and convince herself that she had made it all up. No boy with hypothermia had come into the store with an Australian monster rabbit and no random holes had been popping out of the ground that day. It was like Mr. Goodwin had said, she probably didn't get enough sleep last night and her mind was all jumbled up from the fainting episode. For all she knew, she probably didn't faint! The robber probably knocked her out!

When she got home, she was able to sneak back up to her bedroom and pass back out on her bed without much trouble. The only trouble that was bugging her, now that she had herself convinced that none of stoner incident had happened, was how she was going to tell her mother about the supposed 'robbery' that had happened.

* * *

He was right — North was having a field day with this mystery case.

"She doesn't believe, yet she can see you?" he asked again for the tenth time since Jack and Bunnymund had explained the entire story. Even Tooth and Sandy seemed astonished by the idea of this. "How can this be possible?"

"I don't know, mate," Bunnymund mumbled as he went back to idly painting his egg, pretending that he could care less about the subject at hand.

Jack smirked over at the Easter Bunny. "Did I mention how Bunny _ran away_?"

All eyes turned to the over-sized bunny, who had a scowl on his face that was aimed toward the Guardian of Fun. "Watch it, pal. You might have your stick back, but I'm willing to bet my boomerang hurts more."

"Want to test that out?"

"This is remarkable!" North continued in his giddy state.

"I'd love to meet her! She sounds lovely!" Tooth exclaimed excitedly, her mini-fairies squealing in agreement. "A believer over the age of twelve? Ooh! How exciting!"

Bunnymund deadpanned, "She didn't seem to believe much in us."

Jack chimed in, "She _did_ faint when she saw Kangaroo over here hop into one of his holes.

"Watch it, Frosty."

"What did you call me?!"

The four Guardians were in a fuss over the idea of such a mortal existing and what they should do with her. Sandy, however, seemed to be deep in thought over the matter. North took notice of this. "Sandy, vhat is it?"

Sandy put his finger to his bottom lip and looked up at the moon curiously. All eyes took notice of this and followed his gaze. As usual, Sandy had a great idea.

North cleared his throat and took a step forward to where the conferences were held with the moon. "Man in the moon," he addressed him, "ve need your help."

And for the first time, Jack witnessed an official meeting with the man in the moon as a light shone down on the center of the room. "_Wow_. . . ."

* * *

Sam bit down on her bottom lip when her mother walked into the kitchen the next morning, hair disheveled but wearing a pair of nice, blue jeans and a green halter top. She was mumbling to herself over and over again, "I'm going to be late. I'm going to be late. I'm going to be late. Oh, dang it. . . ."

She had a date.

Taking a small sip of the coffee in her Cookie Monster cup nervously, Sam coughed a bit in hopes of gaining her mother's attention that way. From the way her mother continued on about her business without so much as a glance her way, she took that as a 'no'. Her groggy morning voice managed to squeak out, "Mom?"

This made the woman in a rush stop dead in her tracks and look at her as if she had just realized she were there the entire time. "What?"

Sam glanced nervously down at the coffee in her hand and looked back up at her mother. "Guess what?"

"You got fired, didn't you?"

"Um, no?" She blinked in confusion at this accusation, slightly offended. "But, I _did_ have to come home early from work yesterday."

Her mother rolled her eyes. "That's usually a sign that they're gonna lay you off. Start looking for a new job, dear, this time one that's closer to home. I don't want to have to drive you every time there's a storm, Samantha."

She bit the inside of her cheek. ". . . The reason I was sent home early is because there was a robbery yesterday in the shop." No reaction. "The burglar knocked me out and stole a walking cane from the store."

Ms. Coleman stared blankly at her daughter, gave a shrug and then asked, "Have you seen my brush? I could've sworn I left it around here somewhere." And just like that, she walked out of the kitchen in search of the missing hairbrush.

Sam didn't know what say to that. Her mother hadn't even batted an eye at the news of a robbery where her daughter worked — then again, it might have only been because she thought that Sam was making up one of her random, crazy stories again. It was most likely for the best, but the lack of response from her mother still somewhat bothered her. However, bringing it up again would only make her feel like a needy brat, so she just dropped it and continued on with her normal routine for the morning. It was Sunday, but she still had work, and tomorrow she had school.

Her hair was still damp by the time she reached the door and just to her luck, the moment she opened it a gust of cold wind blew into the house and revealed a snowy landscape beyond the house. Sam's eye twitched.

"_Why_ . . . ?" was her horrified response to this, supposedly, beautiful sight. "The snow just _had_ to come and ruin my day, didn't it?" A flash of the hypothermia boy with the ice hoodie flashed through her mind and she shivered, this time not from the impact of the cold.

_He was only a figment of your imagination. So was the bunny. Your brain was on a major caffeine high yesterday, remember?_

Still, that thought alone made her reluctant to step outside of her house that morning, especially with it snowing. Sam could already tell that this was _definitely_ going to be an off day for her.

Once she managed to finally force herself out the door, Sam had to force herself to run to work. Her muscle felt tighter as her body got colder and more snow fell onto her body and got tangled in her hair. Once she was only a block away from work, she slowed down to speed walking and stuffed her hands into her armpits, hugging herself tightly for warmth. It was then that she realized just where she was standing — the very place where she got hit in the face by the magic stick just a day ago.

_No! _She shook her head. _You didn't get hit by a magic stick! Magic sticks don't just pop out of the ground! Or out of random holes in the ground!_

"You thinking about something?" asked the hypothermia boy floating next to her on said magic stick.

Sam nodded, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Yeah, I'm just—" She froze and stared at the frostbitten boy, eyes unblinking. "_AH_!" came her high-pitched scream once her brain finally processed what her eyes were seeing. "_You're real_?!"

The boy stared at her as if she had just told him that clouds were white. "Nope. I'm not even here right now," he teased her with a roll of his eyes.

Sam did not catch on to the playfulness in his tone. "Oh, thank gosh!" and with that, she started to walk away from him.

"Hey!" the hypothermia boy shouted as he floated after her on his staff. "You can see me, right?"

_Just ignore him. Just ignore the floating boy with hypothermia. He's just trying to mess with your lacking sanity. . . . He'll go away soon. . . ._

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think that you were trying to ignore me," he laughed sarcastically.

"Take a hint Mr. Figment-of-my-Imagination. My mom is already looking for reasons to put me in a mental institute, she does not need help with that." Sam hurried her walking up as she rounded a corner and the shop came into view. As far as she was concerned, the moment she walked through that door her imaginary "friend" would disappear.

He floated in front of her, causing her to come to a stop. He offered his hand out to her. "The name's Jack Frost."

She stared at his hand, her eye slightly twitching. Where had she heard that name before? "Isn't that a snow cone company?"

He seemed taken aback by this and leaned in closer as if to check to see if he had heard her right. "What?"

"Wait, no . . . no it isn't. Oops." Sam shook her head and tried to make her way past the imaginary boy in front of her. He cut her off again.

"You still haven't told me your name," he said with a smirk.

"You never asked," she said blandly, still trying to move past him.

"Okay, what's your name?"

"Carlos — uh . . . Montreal."

"Oh, come on!" Jack continued to cut her off, now jumping onto his magic stick as if it were some sort of surfboard. "Really, what's your name?"

Sam narrowed her eyes at him. "You're part of my imagination. Shouldn't you already know what my name is?"

The bewildered look returned. "Wh—wa—since when was I—wait—huh?" The look he was giving her made her feel as though _she_ were the one out of whack! Realization then popped into his head and he brought his staff up so that he could rest his head on his crossed arms. "You really don't think I'm here right now, do you?"

She tried to move past him again, only to no avail . . . again. "I'm going to be late for work! Why don't you go join your monster rabbit buddy and just jump into those wide holes he—ohmygosh, this sounds so wrong!" Sam winced and shivered at the dirty images popping into her head.

Jack laughed at this and offered his hand to her. "If I'm not real, then you shouldn't be able to touch me."

"Ew! No more dirty images! _Please_! I won't be able to look Mr. Goodwin in the eye at this rate!" Sam covered her eyes and ears, serenading herself to drown out whatever else Jack had to say. The frost spirit rolled his eyes and poked her nose. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by her small squeal as her hands shot up to grab the tip of her nose. "You're _freezing_!"

He mocked a bow to her. "Jack Frost, at your service!"

Her eyes seemed to roll to the back of her head and he was quick to catch her by her shoulders this time, steadying her.

Luckily, Sam maintained conscience as she refocused her eyes on the spirit in front of her. His hands were like ice on her shoulders, even through her shirt. She yanked away from him with a shudder, afraid that he would give her frostbite just by merely touching her.

_Ohmygosh that sounds _so_ wrong. . . ._

Jack's smirk returned to his face as realization crept onto hers. "Do you believe me now?"

Sam's breath hitched and she found herself unable to respond. She didn't need to — her face said it all, and that was all Jack needed. Out of a moment of shock and curiosity, Sam couldn't help but reach out and poke the tip of his nose as well, the icy feeling radiating off of him and into her finger. She winced and pulled away from him, the icy feeling almost like a burn. Was this all some sort of realistic dream she was having? She wasn't sure if she could recall having any others where it felt _this_ real. It was then, past the shock and cold, that she realized something: she was freaking terrified.

"_AH!_" came her infamous high-pitched scream that, oddly enough, seemed to be occurring more often lately as she pushed Jack out of her way and made a run for her work, desperate to find a way to put some sort of barrier between them, even if it was just some wooden door that was easily breakable.

Yes, she'd know this. How she still had this job was beyond her.

Distantly, she heard the boy calling after her for her to wait up, but Sam didn't stop until she had slammed the shop door behind her and fell onto her bottom breathlessly, staring at the door with a horrified expression. Mr. Goodwin hurried into the room and saw the teenager on the ground having a miniature heart-attack and felt the need to say or do something. "Miss Coleman! What on Earth is the matter with you?"

All that followed was that blabbering of the slightly-insane teenager as she motioned her hands toward the door and out the window. The rate of her heart increased when she saw that Jack Frost had indeed followed her to work and was now staring at her out the window. He gave her a friendly wave and a mocking smile as he leaned against his magic stick and her blabbering and hand motioning all focused toward him, earning a skeptical and judging look from Mr. Goodwin.

He came to stand next to her, pulling the hysteric girl up to her feet and trying to steady her with his hands on her shoulders. "Miss Coleman," he addressed her, but her head remained twisted to stare out the window at the boy who was now whistling a small tune to himself and messing with his fingernails. "Miss Coleman," he said a little louder now, but his voice was drowned out by her own as her blabbering soon turned into screaming and finally, he couldn't take it anymore. "_Miss Coleman_!"

Sam froze, turning to look at the middle-aged man in horror. "That boy! He! Sir! Really!"

"Miss Coleman," Mr. Goodwin shook his head, "what boy are you speaking of?"

"Wh—?" her head turned back to the window and the boy with hypothermia glanced up from his nails to her and he sent her another smirk, this time followed by a wink. She looked back to the man in front of her. "That boy! The one who looks like he has hypothermia! He's at the window!" She pointed toward the indifferent Jack Frost.

Mr. Goodwin looked at the window with a raised eyebrow. He even squinted just to make sure that he wasn't missing anything. "What boy, Miss Coleman?"

Sam's heart stopped beating. There was no way that her mind was making this all up. She had seen him twice already. Heck! She even had physical contact with him! Full conversations! Her mother already had her tested for insanity (she wasn't kidding about wanting to find reasons to put her in a mental institute)! There was no way she was making this up. "Can't you see him?" Sam asked in the most pathetic voice she had ever heard herself use.

Mr. Goodwin sighed heavily and looked away from the window and back to the girl, shaking his head and stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Miss Coleman, please get back to work. I really wouldn't want to have to resort to drastic measures after you working here for so long." He walked to the back room, leaving her alone.

Sam looked back to the window in a desperate attempt to prove to herself that she wasn't crazy — but there was no evidence. Jack Frost was gone.

* * *

Arriving back home at normal time seemed pretty foreign to her, what with the incident that had occurred the previous day. However, she was much less concerned about actually coming home on time at six o'clock and was more focused on a certain boy with hypothermia she had come across and _talked_ to today.

"Mom?" she croaked out, but no one answered. Go figure. At least she had the house to herself as she debated on whether or not she was absolutely crazy.

Sam walked into the living room where she found the computer and quickly hopped on, waiting impatiently for it to boot up. Her socked foot tapped rapidly on the ground, her teeth dug into her bottom lip, and her eye twitched nearly as fast as her heart beat was. The moment the internet loaded up she was almost driven insane by her own thoughts. Her fingers quickly typed in: _I can see someone that no one else can._

Of course, her search results went straight to Schizophrenic. Awesome.

She tried again: _Why can I see this guy that no one else sees?_

This time, a bunch of questions and answers from blinded teen girls popped up. Sam sighed heavily and slammed her head down on the keyboard.

"I'm crazy. I really am. . . ."

"Have you tried searching up 'Jack Frost'?"

. . . _No._

Her head lifted up, key imprints all over her face, and she almost let out a scream at the sight of the hallucination from earlier, but he covered her mouth before she could this time. "Sorry, I don't think my ears will last another one of your screams."

Sam tried to throw some sort of retort back at him, but only a muffle came out past his hand.

Jack motioned with his eyes back to the computer screen. "Try 'Jack Frost' this time." The ends of his lips curled up back into one of his smirks. "You'll probably feel a little less crazy if you do." Taking his hand off of her mouth and tossing his stick over his shoulder proudly, he started to walk away. Sam watched him as he left out the door like a civilized human being, despite everything pointing against it. He flashed her a wink as he closed the door behind him, "G'night!"

For reasons unknown to her, Sam couldn't bring herself to chase after him and demand answers about who he was and what was going on. Instead, she just took his advice and twirled around in her seat and typed in: _I can see Jack Frost._

The results she got were from children who had started this website called 'The Guardians'. While it seemed totally wacko to even consider taking advice from a kid who was only seven or eight, Sam figured that any answer was better than none. So, with a shaking hand, she clicked on the link to the site of 'The Guardians'.


	3. Chapter Three

_**A/N: After another week, here is another update! Things have been so hectic lately. I'm so happy for all of this feedback I'm getting from you all! Thank you so much!**_

* * *

_Chapter Three_

_Losing Your Mind_

* * *

_How did these _kids_ manage to create a website in the first place . . . ?_

Samantha gnawed at her bottom lip as she scanned the opening page for 'The Guardians'. It was only another one of those blog sites, belonging to a few children who shared a blog, and they would post experiences they had with these 'Guardians'. As much as she wished it did, though, the site wasn't helping her convince herself that she wasn't insane. Not only did they say that Jack Frost was real, they also confirmed the existence of other childhood heroes she had. That idea wasn't helping her already fragile mind. The idea of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman being real was utterly insane! Well, for kids their age, it was perfectly normal to believe in myths and fairytales, but Sam would definitely be losing her mind if she believed in such things.

_. . . I need help . . . right now. . . ._

Her head slammed down onto the keyboard again, this time from utter exhaustion. There was no way that Jack Frost was actually real. There was no way that these kids were actually _seeing_ these characters in real life. If they were real, wouldn't other people be seeing them run around everywhere, too?!

_Jack Frost isn't real. . . . These kids are only, like, seven or eight, right? Maybe ten. But, even so, they're still only kids! There is _no_ way that I'm actually seeing this guy! He's not real! He's not real! He's not real!_

Part of her was too scared to continue reading the website — what if these kids were right? Sam had no idea why the idea of such awesome characters being real terrified her, but it did. However, another part of her wanted to continue on with the website. Maybe there was some sort of explanation as to why she was seeing myths and fairy tales hopping into random holes in the ground and stalking her. That part of her won the mental argument.

She lifted her head up off of the keyboard, feeling the imprints of a bunch of the keys, and sniffed to clear her nose up as she leaned in closer to the computer screen to continue on with the biography the kids had made for Jack Frost. There had been a few grammatical errors, but she managed to decipher _most_ of it. Once she was done with her stalker's biography, she moved on to the 'Next' link, which brought her to Santa Claus's page.

_. . . North . . . ? Uh, no thank you. I'm gonna stick to calling him Santa._

Finishing up, she clicked the 'Next' link and found herself on Sandman's.

_A mute? Made of sand? Yep, I'm definitely losing it._

Clicking the button again, she landed on the Easter Bunny's page. She recognized his description and felt her eye beginning to twitch the moment she came to the 'making holes appear out of the ground' part. Her memory of fainting in the shop came flashing back to her for a split second and she shivered. Once more, she clicked the 'Next' button and came to the Tooth Fairy's page and she found herself more disturbed than she had been with the Easter Bunny.

_. . . She's half bird? Wait, what? Half _bird_?!_

"Samantha?"

The teenager jumped in her seat and spun around, caught off guard by the random voice that came from behind her. It was only her mother, though, who seemed to be as confused as she felt at the moment.

Sam felt her heart skip a beat as she glanced back and forth nervously from her mother to the computer screen and back to her mother. "Uh, hey!"

Her mother rubbed her eyes tiredly as she closed the front door behind her and glanced up at the kitchen clock. "It's almost nine and you're not in bed yet?"

Normally, her mother preparing an early bed time for her didn't bother her too much. There was never someone to witness her being treated like a kid. With the recent stalker issues she was having, though, Sam felt heat rise to her cheeks as she bit her tongue and glanced around the room to make sure a certain winter spirit wasn't around to watch this. "I've got some homework to do."

This didn't help her mother at all. "Why didn't you do it earlier, then?" she snapped.

_Bad date, huh?_

"Sorry," was her weak response to this as she hung her head, trying her best to avoid all eye contact with the woman a few feet away from her at the doorway. "I'm almost done. I'll be in bed soon."

"Good. Please don't wake me up when you go to school, though. You tend to make a lot of noise when you get up."

"Sorry. Good night."

"'Night." And just like that, her mother walked down the hall and into her bedroom.

Sam sat there for a moment in deep thought, although she had no idea what she was thinking about. She had just spent at least forty minutes reading biographies for people she thought weren't even real and had managed to escape her mother thinking that she was a total nut. That's what she would have thought if she saw what her daughter was looking at.

Biting her bottom lip and turning back to look at the screen, she decided to explore just a few more pages of the website and head to bed. She had school the next day and still had some math homework that needed to be done.

* * *

Jack leaned against his staff lazily as he watched the toys on the bottom floor be designed by yetis while the elves ran around doing . . . well . . . nothing. So much for 'Santa's little helpers'. . . .

He had a long day. Sure, it wasn't stressful or agonizing, but it had been pretty long. He had made it snow somewhere in Massachusetts and then rushed back to Burgess to make some mischief in the girl's life that he had recently taken an interest in. It was more than obvious that she didn't believe in him, or any of the Guardians for that matter, but she could still somehow see them. North had taken it upon himself to juggle getting ready for Christmas and looking more into an Unbelieving Seer, but the rest of the Guardians just sort of had nothing to do. Tooth had tried looking into it some, but her efforts had been in vain. Bunnymund decided to just ignore the matter and let things sort themselves out. Sandy was rather busy taking care of dreams, especially with the recent time change.

Where did this leave him, Jack Frost? With absolutely nothing to do.

_Bored. . . . Bored. . . . I'm so bored. . . . Bored. . . . Bored. . . . I'm so bored. . . ._

Back to his thoughts about the girl, he entertained some ideas of how he could possibly mess with her the next day. It was late now and she was most likely still studying about the Guardians after he had given her some advice on how to look him up. He pumped his chest out in pride at that thought. Kids had only recently started being able to see him, thanks to Jamie and his friends, and he was still getting used to the idea of not being as invisible as before.

His eyes drifted over to the globe with at least a billion bright, golden lights glowing on it all over each land there was. It was comforting, knowing that there was a chance that one day all of those lights could possibly believe in him and he wouldn't have to waste time getting them to believe in him through snowball fights and snow storms . . . and drawing pictures with ice on their window.

A guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do. . . .

"Jack?" North's Russian accent piped up behind him. "Vhen did you get here?"

Jack spun his staff around, still leaning against it, to face the man in the big red suit. "Not too long ago. I've just been hanging out here."

North's eyes narrowed at the mischievous winter spirit. "Not plotting to freeze my shop again, are ve? That vould take too long to clean up before Christmas." The big man came to stand next to the boy, crossing his arms on the railing and leaning over it.

Jack dismissed the thought with his hand. "Nah! I'm not _that_ mean."

There was a moment of silence.

"No, this has nothing to do with learning some lesson from Easter Sunday!"

Another moment of silence followed, this time North gave Jack a knowing look.

Jack broke the look and was quick to change the subject, "Did you find anything on the girl?"

North chuckled at the weak attempt to change the subject, but allowed it anyways and looked away from him and toward the globe. "Vell, I have hit a dead end."

"You know, I kinda was hoping the Moon would tell us a bit more than her just being essential in the future," Jack mumbled. "I mean, _how_ can she see us? Every time I've talked to her she's freaked out like she's looking at a ghost. Well, I guess she _is_, but . . . yeah."

The older of the two seemed to take this into consideration. "All ve can do is trust the Man in Moon. He vill only give us vhat we need to know, nothing more, nothing less." As realization hit him, he looked back in mild surprise at the teenage hellion, "You vent back to see her?"

Jack nodded, picking at his nails as he looked down in disinterest. "Yeah. It'd be nice to have someone my age, well, sorta, to talk to. Even if it does only result in her fainting or screaming at me."

North let out a bellowing laugh and leaned up from the railing. "She fainted from the very sight of Bunnymund's hole!"

Jack huffed. "_Please_!" Whipping his head out of his eyes, his chest puffed out once again as he said, "She fainted because of me. Who wouldn't?"

North ignored the comment from the hellion and shook his head humorously. "I'll get back to vork, vhich you should be doing as vell, Jack." He gave him a pointed look. "After all, vhat's a Christmas vithout some snow?"

Jack pursed his lips. "I was thinking maybe a blizzard in New York. I haven't really made a blizzard in a long time and—" he stopped when he saw the look on North's face, "—never mind. I'll just . . . yeah."

North rolled his eyes and patted the young boy on the head. "Stay out of trouble, Jack."

"Not at all!" he waved to him as he walked away with his staff thrown over his shoulder carelessly. What was there to do now? North obviously didn't trust him in his workshop, Bunnymund would strangle him if he stepped foot in the Warren, and seeing Tooth's teeth collection wasn't exactly at the top of his fun list at the time. Perhaps Jamie was free at the moment. After all, it was never too late to go for a sleigh ride through town.

* * *

Sleeping was a miracle itself that night, but Sam still craved more of it when her alarm clock went off at five in the morning. She slugged herself out of bed and crawled toward the bathroom to take a shower. School hours really did suck . . . especially high school hours. Seriously, who's idea was it to have school at _seven_ in the morning? A vampire?

An idea played in her head where vampires did actually exist. After all, Jack Frost, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny—

_NO! BAD SAM! Those things do not exist! You know better than that! Kids creating a website dedicated to them doesn't prove anything! Other than the fact that other people are seeing Jack Frost than just you. . . . Wait, no, no, no, no! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Just take your darn shower and wake up! That'll knock some sense into you!_

It didn't. The mental argument continued through the entire hour and a half it took her to get ready for school. By the time the bus was supposed to arrive, she had half a mind to just shove her head into the stop sign to stop the voices in her head from going at it. Why was it proving to be such a chore to forget all about the winter spirit? He wasn't real. She was just losing her mind and needed to be put in an asylum already! That's it! She needed to march home right then and tell her mom to go ahead and fulfill her five-year dream to just get rid of her crazy daughter!

"Why, good morning!" Jack's voice rang out from behind her, earning yet another one of her infamous screams. He was quick to cover her mouth again until her mind finally registered that it was only her winter spirit stalker and not some . . . well . . . stalker.

Her eyes widened in realization and she smacked his hand away angrily, soon getting right up in his face. "No, you're not real! Go away! I have school today! Bye-bye now! _Leave_!"

Jack rolled his eyes at her stubbornness to believe what her eyes were seeing. To shut her up, he lifted the bottom of her mouth up to close it and smirked playfully at her. "School? Seriously? When you could be out having fun?"

She smacked his hand away again. "No, no, _no_! Go away now!" Her hands flew to her ears and her eyes tightly shut. "You're not here! You're not here! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah!"

He wasn't sure if he was feeling impatient with her now or if that tight feeling in his chest was him trying to hold back a roar of laughter. "Uh, yeah, I'm right here. In front of you. Talking to you. With my staff, which you stole from me two days ago."

"Blah! Blah! Bla—huh?" She paused, taking her hands from her ears and narrowing her eyes at him. "Wait, when did I steal your stick?"

"Remember? Bunny and I had to go get it back from you at the shop," he reminded her with a pointed look as he hopped onto his stick, balancing himself on it like a surfboard.

Sam felt an instant jab of offense from his comment. "I didn't _steal_ your staff, jerk!"

"Yes you did," he said with a small yawn, which only angered her more.

"No, I didn't! I just took it with me to the shop just in case someone lost it and they could find it later!" she argued, half lying to save herself some pride.

He hopped off his staff and startled her by pointing it right in her face. "_You_ stole _my_ staff."

She was fuming. "No, it hit me in the face!"

"Then, you stole it," he pointed out, his smirk returning to his face in amusement.

"Well, it shouldn't have been hitting me in the face!" she smacked the stick out of her face. It was safe to assume that, at the moment, if you were in her personal bubble, you were going to get smacked away.

Jack merely laughed and through his staff back over his shoulder. "Man, North is gonna _love_ you when he meets you!"

It took her a moment to remember who this 'North' guy was. "Wait, isn't that Santa Claus?" _No, he doesn't exist! Stop doing this to yourself, Samantha!_

"The one and only," Jack responded, taking a step closer to her. "He's fascinated by you. An unbeliever who can see us is pretty rare, you know."

"Yeah, who _doesn't_ steal staffs," she grumbled, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.

He kicked her knee playfully, which she recoiled at. He wasn't sure how to take this — it was like she thought he was dangerous. "Just drop it. You stole the staff, end of discussion." She opened her mouth to argue with him, but he cut her off to save himself some headache, "When do you want to meet them, anyways?"

Her already open mouth just hung open, "Uh . . . say what?"

"The Guardians," he lifted the bottom of her mouth back up to meet the top again. "You should really learn to keep your mouth closed, that's not very attractive." She almost snapped something at him, but he just closed her mouth again. "So, when do you want to meet the rest of us? Right now or . . . right now?"

He grabbed her by her waist and threw her over his shoulder before she had the chance to the respond, except for a little squeak of surprise that escaped her mouth when he threw her over his shoulder, and he hopped back onto his staff and flew off into the sky. The flailing and screaming began almost immediately.

"_WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU FREAK?! PUT ME DOWN! OHMYGOSH! I'M GOING TO DIE! PUT ME DOWN ALREADY! AHHH!_"

Jack felt his eardrums threatening to burst open as he set her down in front of him on his staff, which had come to a halt once they were floating right above the town. "Calm down, uh . . . you know, I never learned your name." His expression turned thoughtful.

She didn't share any thoughtfulness he had at the moment. Her eyes were wide, her nose was flared, and her face was the color of flames. "_I'M GOING TO CASTRATE YOU IF YOU DON'T PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW!_"

Jack didn't bother to hide his amusement at her choice of words. "Oh, don't be so eager to get dirty with me."

"_JACK!_"

"What is with you, anyways? Most kids would be having the time of their lives right now!" he kept his hands on her shoulders to keep her steady on the staff as she continued to flail about, her breath uneven and heavy as she looked around in horror at her surroundings.

"Well, _first off_!" she jabbed her finger into his frostbitten chest, the cold burning the tip of her finger momentarily. "It's _way_ too cold up here! Especially with you here!"

He took major offense to this. "Hey! There is nothing wrong with the cold!"

"Oh, don't even get me started on that! And _secondly_!" she jabbed his chest again. "Do you realize that I could _die_ if I fall from this high?! Not all of us have the ability to fly here!" She momentarily lost balance and clung to him in a fit of panic.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, tightly shutting his eyes in concentration. He was started to question why he did this to himself, why he kept threatening his eardrums like this. "Look, just hold on tightly and we'll be at the North Pole in a few minutes," he said preparing to move.

"_No_!" she screamed, holding onto him tighter with her eyes tightly shut as she tried to block out the mental image of falling from the stick and to her certain death. "Just take me to school! I want to go to school! I never thought I'd say this, but I want to go to school! I don't want to go to the North Pole! I don't want to be fifty billion feet up in the air! I want to go to school and deal with jerks and morons all day and then come home and have to do hours of homework!"

Jack's face wasn't shy of disgust. "You have a terrible priority list!" Wrapping an arm around her waist to make sure that he didn't drop her on the way, he hopped off of the stick, which she screamed at and wrapped her legs around his in a desperate attempt to keep herself from falling. "Well, I guess I don't have to tell you to hold on tight," he teased her and in mere moments, they were flying away toward the North Pole, much to the female's dismay.

_I'm so freaking grounded! I just know it!_

* * *

**Please remember to leave some feedback! It means a lot! :)**_  
_


	4. Chapter Four

_**Thank you so much for being so patient and for all of the lovely feedback! It means so much to me! :) And thank you to LunaBell08, whom I forgot to thank last week, for the awesome picture she made for this story! She drew Sam herself! The artwork means a lot to me, Luna! Enjoy!**  
_

* * *

_Chapter Four_

_Skipping School_

* * *

"_JACK WHATEVER YOUR MIDDLE NAME IS FROST! I DIDN'T GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO KIDNAP ME!_"

Jack continued to ignore her as they came to a halt in front of two yetis guarding a door in grandiose size. "Hey, guys," he greeted his old friends with a casual wave, pretending to not even notice the scared to death girl who clung to him as if for dear life. "Mind letting us in? I gotta show North something." That 'something' happening to be the human girl.

"SOMETHING?! _SOMETHING_?!"

"Pretty please?" Jack insisted, earning him access through the doors from a very befuddled yeti.

He didn't hesitate to swiftly fly his way through the workshop, giving the occasional 'hello' to an elf or yeti who happened to catch his eye. Meanwhile, the teenager he had clung to him continued to scream at the top of her lungs, now sounding hoarse and losing her breath.

Jack took this chance to make a sarcastic remark, "Taking a break?"

This earned him a punch to his lower back, which he remained unfazed by. Sam wanted to continue screaming, but now that she was where he wanted her to be, she doubted that anyone would actually try to help her now. Why she even thought that screaming would save her a billion feet in the air while flying at hyper speed on a magical stick was beyond her now that she thought about it. So, instead of yelling and screaming and fighting back more, she decided to take a break with a loud, annoyed huff. Screaming was starting to make her feel sick to her stomach.

_Well, if I end up puking, at least it'll be all over this freak._

Jack took note of how she was suddenly calm, but could feel how tense she still remained and didn't make the mistake of thinking that she was able to walk on her own without running away. Still, he could take this chance to try and learn a few things about her. "So, you still haven't told me your name."

There was no response.

He laughed. "Oh, now you're not talking to me?"

Still, she gave him the silent treatment.

Another laughed escaped his mouth, "Alrighty then! Peace and quiet doesn't sound half bad right now, anyways."

By the time they reached North's office, Jack wasn't sure if he could stand the peace and quiet anymore and was silently thankful for their arrival. Without knocking, he let himself into the office with a cheeky grin on his face. North jumped a little at the sound of his door opening only to reveal Jack with some girl over his shoulder, but he had seen stranger things these last few days, with Christmas being so close now.

"Hey, I got impatient and just brought her here for further examination," he joked.

"_Examination?!_" was the screech that soon followed.

Jack pretended that this brightened his mood up, "You can still speak! I was beginning to think that all that screaming drove you mute!"

He got kneed in the chest this time, but remained unfazed by it. He had worse happen.

North seemed oblivious to the fact that Jack had kidnapped the girl he was now being introduced to. In his shock and excitement, he even ignored the bickering going on in front of him. "Jack!" he bellowed a laugh. "You leave for a vhile and come back vith a girl!"

Samantha spun around to meet the man with the Russian accent. He knees began wobbling at the mere sight of him. After all, he was _huge_! A giant! Did he _eat_ the kids on the naughty list, too?! The very picture of it that had unwillingly formed in her mind made her head suddenly feel very heavy and the rest of her body quite light in comparison. Her skin turned a sickly pale and her eyes started drooping as her body swayed backward.

Jack was quick to act this time. He swiftly grabbed her by the shoulders to steady her, shaking his head. "Oh, no, no, no, no! No more fainting!"

North didn't seem to recognize the fear he gave the girl. _She must be in shock from the excitement of meeting me!_ "I'm sure you've heard of me, Nonbeliever?" His expression was hopeful and full of wonder, almost like a little kid.

Sam's mouth felt dry, but she managed to give a weak nod in response. Upsetting a giant wasn't exactly at the top of her to-do list for day. Then again, neither had been getting kidnapped by a winter spirit who didn't even exist. This had to be the weirdest dream ever. . . .

_Yes, that's exactly what all of this is. I'm only dreaming. Soon enough, I'm going to wake up and find myself late for school._

Still, she couldn't muster up enough spunk to tell the man in front of her that she didn't believe in him. Wanting out of this crazy, drug-induced dream, she pinched her wrist as hard as she could. A yelp of surprise escaped her lips when the pain struck her hard. Sam's eyes fell on her wrist, finding it to be red with fingernail marks where she had pinched herself. She tried again, this time on her other wrist — still no waking up.

_. . . I'm not asleep, am I?_

The boy behind her happened to notice this strange behavior and smirked, leaning in closer to her ear to whisper a tease, "Do you believe now?"

She shot him a glare that said all she was thinking: _Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Stupid Snow Boy. I want to hit you. Then castrate you. Then steal your stick and beat your body into the ground with it._

As the two teenagers had a mental bickering, North stroked his long, white beard. His eyes focused on the girl in front of him, analyzing her. She was definitely a nonbeliever. Yet, there was no way a nonbeliever could see them. Only believers could see the myths and legends that have been passed down over time. If she had been a secret believer, it would have been more obvious up to this point. However, she still denied their existence with all of her being. "I must admit I'm impressed, Jack. A nonbeliever vho can see us."

"I know, right?" Jack turned back to face North with a cheeky grin. "She's pretty stubborn, too!"

"I'm right here, you know," she growled.

"Even though she sees us," he continued, "she absolutely refuses to believe! It's like she _wants_ to think she's crazy!"

She crossed her arms tightly over her chest and took a step away from him cautiously. "Well, at least I don't go around kidnapping people!"

"I'd have to be real in order to kidnap you, though," he pointed a logical finger at her and then waved his hand dismissively. "Besides, that wasn't kidnapping. _That_ was what _normal_ people call 'fun'." He gave her a wink.

"No, it wasn't!" she tried to yell, but her voice came out as a weak croak.

"Stop trying to yell." Jack invaded her personal space once again and ruffled her hair up, ignoring her flinch. "You might actually lose your voice." Then, he seemed to consider this. "_Although_, I think the pros might outweigh the cons there."

She was about to attempt yelling at him again, but North came to Jack's (or rather, his ears') rescue. "Vould you care to your name vith us?" The sparkles in his eyes of wonder almost tempted to answer him . . . almost. She had to break eye contact with him to get rid of the temptation, so she just resorted to glaring at the winter spirit. That was much more fun for her.

Her lack of response and stagnant stage of just standing there, glaring at Jack with a sickly pale face and the occasional glance over to him with wide eyes of terror was a bit disheartening, to say the least. Jack tried to give him back some reassurance with, "Don't worry, she won't even tell me."

A scowl crossed her face at his choice of words. _Yeah, like I'd _totally_ tell my _stalker_ and _kidnapper_ my name before I'd tell anyone else. . . . What a creep. . . ._

Still, it was enough to reassure North. He clasped his large, masculine hands together in front of her face, earning a squeak of surprise, and rubbed them together excitedly. "How vould you like to take a tour of the rest of my vorkshop?"

"Uh . . ." her voice croaked out weakly as she glanced wearily around the room that was filled with toys and projects in the making. This guy sure had a lot of time on his hands, for someone who was supposed to give presents to every child in the world before the night was over. Her dry throat returned and in a moment of panic, she ignored him and went back to being angry at Jack. She spun around to face him once again and grabbed the collar of his hoodie. She attempted to yank him down so that he would be eye-to-eye with her, but, sadly, he was strong enough to resist it and just stared at her with a cocked eyebrow.

His infamous smirk returned to his face and she felt her cheeks heat up in annoyance. "Wow — you take things fast."

A streak of violence hit her and she smacked his face for the third time that night. The impact hurt her much more than him and she winced in pain, grabbing it with her other hand to squeeze it and try to dull out the pain. Was this guy _made_ of ice?! She glared up at him and hissed bitingly at him, "Stop it! I want to go home! I'll call the cops on you if you don't take me home _right_ now!" It was a weak threat, but it made her feel better about herself.

Jack's eyebrow cocked upward again. "You mean, those same cops that can't see me?"

She was just about to throw a punch at him when North came up with another idea. He clasped his hands together again to gather their attention. "I think it is time that everyone meet you!" His hand flew to his beard and he stroked it thoughtfully, chest puffed out in satisfaction at his own idea, as he cast a thoughtful look upward and then looked back to Sam. "You vill come to believe once you've met all of us, surely!"

The look she had on her face said it all: _I don't want to believe_. His idea had not excited her as he had hoped it would.

In a fit of panic and rage, she punched the winter spirit in the chest — or, at least, she tried to. He caught her fist before it made contact with his chest, seemingly unfazed by her attitude and fury toward him. He _did_ offer a mocking grin for her, though, but that only infuriated her more.

"You should try giggling and smiling more like a normal girl. Hitting and screaming are not very cute at all," he teased her. "I thought blondes were supposed to be bubbly and dumb, anyways?"

She muttered a curse under her breath as she thought of a good comeback for him. She tried yanking her fist away from his grasp, but he was having too much fun messing with her. "And I thought gray hair was only for old people," she countered. This earned an offended 'hey!' from North.

"It's white, Blondie," he told her. "And I kinda am pretty old, you know."

She huffed, still trying to yank her hand away. There were occasional glances she made up to his eyes as she tried to be intimidating, but failed miserably. "A stalker, kidnapped, _and_ a pedophile? Your charm never ceases, does it?"

Jack was taken aback by another name he earned. "Calling me a 'pedophile' suggests that I've done something inappropriate to you, which I haven't." The corners of his lips rose upward and he leaned in closer to her face, now holding her fist even tighter in his hand. "Have you been dreaming about me doing things to you, Blondie?"

"GIVE ME BACK MY HAND, FROST!"

North stared at the two teenagers bickering, head inclined slightly to the side with his hands on his hips. _It's almost like she doesn't like him much. . . ._

* * *

Toothiana was jumping with excitement as she floated in the air when she arrived. "What's her name? How are her teeth? Are they sparkling white?! Oh, don't worry Jack, your teeth will always be my favorite. But, what does she look like? Does she believe yet? Ooh! I'm so excited!"

Bunnymund scooted away to a safe distance from the excited half-humming bird woman as she went about on her spaz attack. After North had called upon the Guardians to gather up so that they could all officially meet this mystery unbeliever, Sandy, Tooth, and Bunny had all arrived at the North Pole with very different attitudes to this particular situation. Sandy, remaining mute, showed signs of intrigue with his sands above his head. Tooth, as stated before, was just counting the seconds before she could finally get a look at the tee—the nonbeliever. As for Bunny, he showed casual indifference to the mystery girl, while on the inside he recalled when he last met her and her little freak out.

Tooth hovering in front of his face startled him out of his thoughts. "Is she charming? Does she take care of her teeth well?" Ah, so she was still on about the girl's teeth.

Not knowing how else to answer the ecstatic tooth fairy, he just shrugged, "I s'pose so. Most teen girls are like that. All fancy and impressive."

This seemed to satisfy Tooth for the moment, but she was soon off to asking even more questions about the girl when North came to Bunny's rescue. Well, sort of.

"Uh. . . . Velcome to the North Pole!" he welcomed them once he entered the room. The sound of glass breaking emitted from the room he had just left and his grin only widened. "Ve vill be vith you shortly . . . after ve, uh . . ." another crashing sound came from behind the door, earning a wince from Sandy, who otherwise kept a peaceful smile on his face. Bunny raised an eyebrow at the commotion.

"Ya need some help, mate?" he asked awkwardly, reaching for his boomerang.

"No, no!" North laughed. "Jack is taking care of everything!"

"_FROST! PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT OR I _PROMISE_ THAT YOU'LL REGRET IT!_"

An awkward silence followed.

North glanced from the three guardians to the door behind him and back to them. "He's got everything under control, I assure you."

Tooth giggled nervously and looked over to Bunny and Sandy. "She sounds lovely?"

* * *

Jack yanked on the girl's arm as she cradled the leg of North's desk with her legs and one free arm with all of her might. "The sooner you come and meet them, the sooner I'll take you home!" he told her, surprised by the amount of strength she was now using to avoid meeting the rest of them.

"_You lie_!" she hissed vehemently at him, glaring daggers back at him.

"I promise you, they're great! You'll love them!" He yanked even harder on her now, causing her to clumsily lose her grip with her other hand and now she was only holding onto the desk with her legs. "And I'm not lying! I'll take you home soon after you meet them!"

"Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!" she whined loudly as she tried freeing her hands from his grip. "_FROST! LET ME GO!_"

"Not happening."

"Yes, happening! _Let. Me. Go._"

"Blondie, you don't look intimidating at all right now. In fact, you just look adorable."

"_FROST!_"

Jack grabbed his staff and wound it around her waist and started tugging on her like that, which proved to be very effective as her legs freed the leg of the desk and she now lay sprawled out on the ground, eyes wide with minor shock. His lips curled up into a smirk as he threw the staff over his shoulder casually. "Looks like I win, Blondie. Time to go meet the Guardians."

She made a move to reattach herself to the desk, but he grabbed her with the staff again and started to drag her to the door. She panicked and started to flail around and attempted pushing the staff off of her. "_No_! Please! Just take me home already! I don't want to meet fake people! Fake people need a reality check!"

Jack laughed. "Oh, stop. You're making me blush."

"I'll tell you my name if you let me go!" she offered hopefully.

"No you won't."

"I'll let you stalk me for an entire day without complaint!"

"Oh, but I _love_ it when you make my ears bleed!"

"Well, you shouldn't be following me around in the first place! Do you know just how many levels of creepiness you have surpassed already?!"

He stopped at the door with a huff and turned around to face her. "Okay, Blondie, you need to calm down. You're acting as if we're going to kill you."

Her face paled. "I wasn't even _thinking_ about that until now! Ohmygosh! I'm gonna die!"

Jack wanted to face-palm at this. "No, we _protect_ the children of the world, not _kill_ them."

"I'm a teenager! Not a child, though!"

". . . Do you _want_ us to kill you?"

"Well, I _did_ want to go home, but some jerkface won't let me!" She stuck her tongue out at him.

Jack felt his smirk twitch in a corner. Was this girl for real? Sure, he was one to talk, but in all seriousness — she was out of her mind! "Okay, here's a deal for you: Tell me your name, and I _promise_ I'll do whatever it takes to make sure that no one kills you."

Her eyes narrowed at him. "Nice try, Frosty."

"_Frosty_?" He looked mildly offended by the nickname bestowed upon him. "He was my greatest creation! Don't use his name so lightly!"

She bit back a smile, but he caught on to it really quickly.

"Ha! I made you smile!" he teased.

She knawed on her bottom lip and turned my head away. "No, I'm thinking of a comeback. Just give me a moment — trust me, you'll regret ever making me angry."

He rolled his eyes and ruffled her hair up a bit. "Nah, you're smiling." After a moment's hesitation, he added, "Plus, you never really have good comebacks. North only laughed because he didn't understand half of what you were saying."

She threw a look at him. "Now I'm definitely not smiling, jerk."

He pointed at her knowingly. "So, you admit to smiling."

"I wasn't smiling, Frost!"

"Okay, okay, you weren't smiling," she waited for a moment, "only if you tell me your name."

"No way," she mumbled, crossing her arms and legs as she pouted on the ground. "You kidnapped me and you expect me to just tell me your name? Seriously? What kind of freak are you?"

He chuckled. "Oh, so you feel comfortable smiling around me, but not telling me your name? Your priorities must be set."

Sam's mind went blank. There was nothing she could say to that. "Well, you're . . . you're just . . . you . . . shut up!" Her cheeks were bright red from her fuming.

Jack's eyebrow cocked upward. "Your cheeks puff out when you pout. Are you sure you're not a little kid?"

"_I said shut up_!"

"What's the harm in telling me your name, anyways?" he asked, half exhausted with the bickering by then. He had to save some of his energy for when he got down there where Bunnymund ought to be. Those bickering were _so_ much more fun than these, anyways.

"Fine!" she threw her hands up in exasperation. "I'm Melanie! Let me go home!"

His head fell to the side as he analyzed her. Finally, he shook his head and crossed his arms over his staff, leaning on it. "Nah, you don't look like a Melanie."

Before she had the chance to answer, the door opened to reveal the rest of the Guardians, two who looked mildly surprised to see her, and two who had already seen her before but still were taking the chance to analyze her. "Oh, hey guys," Jack greeted them. "Taking too long?"

Sam's heart fell into her stomach and let out a scream as Tooth raced up to her and forced her mouth open, examining her teeth closely. "Hm . . . they're okay. Not as healthy as I had hoped. Be sure to take care of your teeth better! A little bit of flossing should do the trick!"

The tooth fairy got no response. There was no one to stop Sam from fainting this time — it wasn't everyday you saw a half-humming bird, after all.

* * *

_**Thank you for reading and please remember to leave your feedback! :)**_


	5. Chapter Five

_**A/N: I'm sorry for the late update, everybody! But, here's a Christmas present to you all! :) Next week might also be a late update since I'll be out of town from the 27th to the 30th, but I'll try and fit in an update the day after I get back. Oh, and thank you once again to LunaBell08! As an early Christmas present, she gave me the Guardians of Childhood novels! *squeal* Also, I'd like to thank you all for the lovely reviews I've been getting! Thank you so much and hopefully, you enjoy this new chapter!**_

* * *

_Chapter Five_

_Introductions Are In Order_

* * *

Bunnymund felt an odd sense of déjà vu as he saw the girl plummet to the ground without anyone catching her. Tooth had attempted to, but her hands slipped when she caught the girl's arm and only made the fall bumpier for the teenager. Jack, despite having been around her for the longest, hadn't anticipated her having another fainting episode and didn't reach out for her in time. Still, though, it made for a good laugh in his opinion.

North thought so, too, letting out a hearty laugh as he made his way over to her. "Must be too much excitement to handle!" he jested, picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder. "Sandy," he addressed the sandman. "Give her some dream sand for more pleasant dreams."

Sandy nodded, forming a ball of golden sand in his hands and throwing it at the girl's face. Tooth sheepishly apologized to the sleeping girl and flew over next to Jack, who just chuckled at the expression she had on her face.

Satisfied, North cleared his throat and made his way for the door, "Ve shall discuss matters at hand as she rests."

"Can't we just ask the Moon to tell us what to do?" Jack asked, looking over to Sandy and back to North, the two oldest of the Guardians.

"Man in Moon vill only tell us vhat ve need to know. Nothing more," North told him.

He was taken aback by this response. "Oh, and we _don't_ need to know what to do with her?"

"I'm gonna have to agree with Frostbite on this one, North," Bunnymund said, pointing one end of the boomerang in his hand at Jack. "We don't know anything about this lass, much less of what to do with her until what the Moon said comes true."

"Perhaps we could try and get to know her more when she wakes up?" Tooth suggested, following everyone out the door.

"I've already tried that approach," Jack muttered, recalling a few earlier conversations he had with the girl. "I can't even get her name out of her."

"Because everyone is up for telling their _kidnapper_ their name," Bunny snorted.

Jack shot him a look. "Who said I kidnapped her? She could have _wanted_ to come here!"

"After seeing that fainting episode? Not likely."

He had nothing to say to that. He supposed that he had _technically_ kidnapped her, in some sense of the word. Still, though, he justified his actions mentally as they made their way to the bottom floor where their meetings usually were. North placed the girl in a chair, hoping to keep her upright long enough for the Guardians to talk. She didn't, though — her head slammed down on the table in front of her. For a moment, they all froze, worried that the impact had woke her up. It didn't.

A sigh of relief later, North turned back to the rest of the Guardians. "Vhat do you suggest ve do then, Jack?"

Jack shrugged, leaning lazily against his staff. "That's actually why I brought her here, hoping that you'd know what to do."

Sandy formed a question mark made of sand above his hand. North nodded in agreement, "Sandy has a valid question, Jack. Vhy bring her here vhen nothing was vrong?"

"What if something _had_ happened, though?" Jack insisted. "I just thought about the message we got from the Moon and I figured that maybe she might be in trouble, or will somehow end up in trouble."

All eyes turned to the girl who was fast asleep against the table. Her mouth hung open and a trail of drool was slowly falling down her chin. They all looked back to each other and came to the agreement that there was nothing special about this girl (aside from being able to see them) that would bring any dangerous attention to her life.

"If we could just learn her name, then we could all probably find out more about her," Tooth said, looking back over to the girl. "Is there anything you can do to find out her name, Jack?"

Jack pursed his lips and looked over to the troublesome female who had nearly killed his eardrums every time he's encountered her. She had seemed pretty determined to do whatever it was to keep him from knowing her name — probably as some sort of defense to herself to keep herself believing that he wasn't actually there. It didn't make any sense to him, but he was sure that in some weird way, it did to her.

Looking back to the tooth fairy, he shrugged his shoulders casually as one of the corners of his lips curled upward and he threw his staff over his shoulder, "I'll see what I can do."

* * *

It took a moment for feeling to come back to her, but when it did she immediately wished that she never woke up. Her head was pounding, her jaw felt numb and sore at the same time, her lips were chapped, and her throat burned (most likely as a result from all of her previous screaming and yelling). Her hands flung up to the sides of her head as she tried to steady herself and her spinning vision. Was this what a hangover felt like?

Familiar voices rang through her head and she looked over to see that all that had occurred this morning had not been a dream. She was still stuck with these figments of her imagination.

_Maybe I can pretend that I'm still asl—Frosty just looked at me. Great. Fantastic! Now they're all looking at me! Are they going to eat me? Should I just start explaining how disgusting it would be to eat a living person? That sounds like a plan!_

"I taste terrible," came out her groggy, sleepy voice. Whatever she said next, the Guardians couldn't understand it besides two words: "No" and "Eating".

_That should do it. . . . Maybe I can go home now. . . . Ow. . . . My head hurts . . . so . . .much. . . ._

Her eyes widened in realization.

_Wait . . . I'm still here. . . . I'm still surrounded by—_

Her eyes fell on each of the Guardians separately, starting with Sandy, then Jack, then North, then Bunny, and finally on Tooth, who had been the one to cause her to faint the last time. Sam felt her heart beat start to race and a sudden adrenaline rush as she jumped to her feet and bolted for the nearest door.

Sadly, Jack was much quicker than her and grabbed her upper arm. "Come on, kid."

"_Kid_?!"

"We need to have a talk." She caught him wink at the other Guardians and scowled, knowing that she could not win this wrestling of her own arm.

He dragged her into the office where she had fainted in and closed the door behind them. She instantly became distracted by the amounts of little toys that North had invented in here, such as the ice train set. Sam wondered why she hadn't noticed any of these wonderful creations the first time she was in here.

_Oh, right. I was too busy being kidnapped. Got it._

Caught up in her daze of the amazing creations that filled the room, she had nearly forgotten the other presence in the room. "Not freaking out now?" Jack teased her.

She did a little jump from the sound of his voice. Straightening herself up and crossing her arms tightly over her chest, Sam managed out, "Just take me home already."

Her vein felt like it was going to pop when she heard Jack chuckle at her response. "Just admit it, now that you're not screaming up a storm and freaking out over every last detail, you think it's pretty awesome."

"First off, I'm just drowsy. When I wake up my screaming will return for you," she snapped at him. "And _what_ do I think is awesome?"

She squeaked a bit when she found him standing right next to her and she jumped a little bit away from him, still treating him like a disease. Jack only paid half a mind to it, despite it being a bit insulting. "It's every kid's dream to get taken away by a myth and getting to meet their childhood heroes," he told her with a smirk. "Stop pretending that you're not even just slightly enjoying this."

"I'm not a kid," she growled at him. "And this isn't exciting. You _kidnapped_ me, remember?"

"As you insist on reminding me," he rolled his eyes.

"Ha!" She pointed a finger at him. "You admit that you kidnapped me!"

"Nah," he shook his head. "I'm just hoping that by not arguing with you I can actually have a decent conversation with you."

"_Decent_?" Her mouth fell open. "How the—?"

Before she could finish that sentence, he pushed her chin up so that her lips would meet again. "I'm telling you, it's not attractive when girls have big mouths, much less when they show them off so often."

"It's also not attractive when boys kidnap girls," she threw back at him, distancing herself from him even more. His touch might as well give her frostbite!

Jack couldn't believe how annoying this girl was. Jamie was younger than her and he was still far better company that she was turning out to be! So much for finding someone to talk to who was in the same general age area you were. "How about we start over?" he suggested.

"How about you take me home?" she countered.

He ignored her and offered her his hand, which she flinched at. "Hi, my name is Jack Frost, the Guardian of Fun!"

"Take. Me. Home," she commanded, keeping her arms tightly crossed over her shoulders as she eyed him sauntering around her with his staff flung over his shoulder.

Jack continued, ignoring her demands for him to take her home, "I control wintery weather, like snow. You know those Snow Days you get off from school? You're welcome! I also like to visit the beach from time to time, but only to freeze the waves. It makes for good art."

"Jack!" she tried raising her voice, but her throat burned and her voice cracked.

"I'm from the town Burgess, if you must know. I'm currently three hundred and eighteen, but trust me — age is just a number," he winked at her.

Finally, she cracked. "If I tell you my name, will you just take me home already?! I'm missing school and if my school calls my mother, I'm going to be in the worst trouble of my life!"

Jack stopped in front of her, smirking with confidence. "I'm listening, Blondie."

Sam hesitated to tell him. She had held out for so long, but she _really_ needed to get home. If she stayed here any longer she was sure that she'd actually go insane. This was all just in her imagination, though. It _had_ to be. Santa Claus wasn't real. The Easter Bunny wasn't real. The Tooth Fairy wasn't real. There was no such thing as the Sandman. And Jack Frost was just a figment of her imagination who was trying to drive her nuts by convincing her that he was real. He couldn't be, though.

Okay, her mind was reeling to the point of getting off topic. Could she really tell him her name? It terrified her to think of what might happen if he knew her name. What if by simply knowing her name he could garner enough proof to show that he and the rest of these 'Guardians' were real? That those kids who made the website dedicated to them were actually seeing them, too? While most of her was panicking at the very idea of them being real, a small part of her felt that excitement that he had mentioned earlier.

"Fine," she huffed, turning her head away so that she didn't have to face him in her moment of defeat. "My name is Samantha."

"Samantha what?"

She wanted to smack that smirk off his face. "Samantha Coleman."

"See?" he ruffled her hair up. "Was that too hard?"

_Yes._ "Oh, shut up and take me home already!"

She smacked Jack's hand away from her head and took a step away from him again, trying to make it clear that she didn't want any sort of physical contact between them. Jack took the hint, but still felt the need to keep pestering her. After all, what better way to prove that he was real other than forcing her to acknowledge he was actually _there_? How that still wasn't enough proof for her was beyond him.

"I'll take you home in a little while," he told her, reaching out to ruffle her hair again. She, yet again, smacked his hand away.

"_No_," she hissed. "Take me home _now_." She had missed enough school as it is. Her mother was going to _kill_ her for skipping — and there was absolutely no way she'd believe her if she explained _why_ she had missed school!

"So you can go to school like a good little girl?" Jack leaned down so that they were now eye-level. "I've never known a kid who actually _likes_ going to school."

Sam narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm _not_ a kid. Now stop calling me that!"

"Only if you agree to just stay for one more hour or two," his lips widened like a Cheshire cat.

She was flabbergasted. "Wha—no! Take me home!"

Jack let out a snicker. "You make teasing you _way_ too easy, Sammy."

Her cheeks heated up in annoyance. "Don't start giving me nicknames, Frosty!"

"Oh, but you can give me nicknames? This is all a bit one-sided, don't ya think?"

"B-But . . . that's only because it's easy to give you nicknames!"

Jack let out a laugh. "What kind of reasoning is that? You're such a kid!"

"_I. Am. Not_!"

"Aww, is the little kiddie gonna throw a temper tantrum?"

"_FROST_!" her throat burned once again and her voice cracked.

Jack shook his head with laughter and ruffled her hair up once again, this time avoiding getting his hand struck by her. "Tell you what — I'll take you home after you meet all of the Guardians, and be on your best behavior. Meaning, no fainting episodes."

Getting defensive instantly, she said, "The bird girl was right in my face, looking at my teeth! What would you have done in my place?"

"I just sort of took it," he told her. "Tooth's ways of introducing herself _may_ be borderline creepy, but she means well, especially to kids."

"I'm _not_ a kid, Frost!" Sam felt the angry heat in her cheeks start to rise up to the tips of her ears.

"Called it — you're about to throw a temper tantrum."

"I am not!"

"It's getting closer. . . ."

"Seriously, just take me home already!" She threw her hands up in the air out of exasperation. "The sooner I get home, the sooner I can wake up from this dream!" At least, that was her assuming that's how it worked.

Jack's crooked grin returned to his face as he tilted his head sideways. "You're a weird one, aren't ya?"

"Says the guy that no one else can see but me," she grumbled.

"Actually," he lifted a finger up, "a few kids can see me."

She shook her head. "No, that doesn't count. Kids will believe whatever you tell them."

"And who's to say that half of the things you tell them aren't true?" he challenged her.

"No one," she agreed. "But, what of the other half? Look, I caught my parents putting presents under the tree when I was seven and my dad ate all of the cookies," she said with a roll of her eyes, once again crossing her arms.

It was Jack's turn to shake his head. "North hates it when they do that."

Sam ignored him and continued, "And I caught my mother acting as the 'Tooth Fairy' when I was really young, too."

Jack nodded. "Yep, Tooth hates that, too."

Determined to win this, she added, "Oh! And I've never believed in the Easter Bunny! My parents were always the ones to hide the eggs and they never tried to lie to me about it."

Jack laughed out loud, catching Sam off guard. What had she said? "Man!" Jack playfully shoved her shoulder. "These guys wouldabsolutely _hate_ your parents!" He was bent over from laughing so hard, holding himself up with his hand placed on his knee. Looking up, teary-eyed from all of the laughter, he asked, "Oh please, tell me what they said about Sandy! And me!"

She was staring at him skeptically now — had she finally lost it to the point where her imaginations were nuts, too? Her future therapist (and possibly doctor) was going to have a field day with this! "Uh . . . they never really said anything about the Sandman. I just assumed he didn't exist." Her throat dried as she thought about the man of sand who was in the room just outside the door. Avoiding eye contact, she added, "And I never really heard anything about you — just that you go around nipping noses as an expression of the cold outside."

Jack smirked, leaning in and invading her personal space once again. "Well, it _is_ cold outside now. . . . _Ouch_!"

Sam narrowed her eyes as her fingernails pressed tightly against the tip of his nose, pinching it. "Yeah, don't even try that, buddy."

Jack managed to get his nose out of her pinch and he rubbed it gingerly, lips curled upward at her. "You sure do enjoy hurting me, don't you?"

Once again, she took a step away from him to ensure the distance between them, crossing her arms tightly over her chest as if it would somehow play as a barrier between them and snapped, "Look, I'm tired, annoyed, and downright creeped out! Can you just take me home already?!"

"I already told you," he stared down at his nose and wiggled it, rubbing it one last time and looking back to her, "I will after you go out there and meet them." After a small moment of silence where Sam looked as though this response only made her antsier, he added, "They don't bite, I promise."

Sam was stuck in deep thought for a little while longer, debating on what to say to him. If she said no, it would just result in another argument that would otherwise lessen her chances of getting home anytime soon. Saying yes would mean meeting more figments of her imagination. Well, she hoped that was what they were. For some odd reason, Sam would had rather been crazy than accept that all of these childhood stories she had grown up on and then told they were not real were, well, real. At the same time, though, it was slightly exciting. "Fine! But, you _have_ to take me home immediately afterward, agreed?"

Jack placed his hand over his heart, as if making a vow to her. "Of course!"

He offered her his hand, but she only eyed it as if it were going to bite her. Awkwardly taking his hand back, whistling a random tune that popped into his head, he walked to the door and opened it for her. She hurried through it and he followed after her, soon taking the lead and showing her the way back to where the other Guardians were. In the time that they had been gone, Bunnymund and North got into an argument about whose holiday was more hard work as Tooth tried to butt in and insist that her and Sandy worked harder than them since they had to work every night of the year.

Jack mentally thanked himself for doing his work on his own schedule. Looking over to the, once again, very pale Samantha, he leaned in to her ear and whispered, ignoring her flinch at the sudden closeness between them, "Don't worry, they're not always this boring."

She watched as the oversized bunny shoved a colorful egg in St. Nick's face. "Uh . . . yeah. . . . I'm sure they're great."

Jack saw her cast a glance to the door and thought fast, grabbing her upper arm and dragging her over to the other Guardians, despite her protests, "We're back! She's all fixed up!"

"Watch it, Icee," she hissed at him.

North stopped laughing at Bunny's arguing and looked over to the human girl and Jack Frost. "Ah! You're back!"

Tooth was quick to fly in front of Sam, who let a small squeak out of surprise. "I'm _so_ sorry about earlier! I just get excited when it comes to teeth, is all," she let out a nervous laugh.

Jack had to stifle a snicker when he caught Sam's eye twitching. "Uh . . . right. . . . I'm . . . uh . . . Samantha. . . ."

"Oh, darn," she snapped her fingers. "I thought you would be a 'Heather'."

"Told ya she look'd nothin' like one," Bunny told her, going back to painting his egg.

Tooth turned around to face him, grabbing the ends of Sam's hair and holding them up, startling the poor girl. "She's a blond, though!" Letting go of her hair, she grabbed hold of her chin and forced her to look toward Bunny. "And her facial structure reminds me of a 'Heather's'!" Turning back to face the petrified teenager, she opened her mouth up and examined the insides of her mouth, "Her teeth remind me of a 'Heather's', too."

Sam felt her head start to feel light and her legs were wobbling. This time, Jack saw and was able to act fast. He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her away from Tooth. "Now, now, Tooth, don't hog her all to yourself," he teased.

Tooth's cheeks tinted pink in realization. "Oops, sorry! I got carried away again!" Offering the girl a heart-warming smile, she said, "I'm Toothiana, the Tooth Fairy!"

Sam managed to squeak out, "Pleasure," before Jack moved her over to Sandy.

Jack cleared his throat and motioned toward the small man of sand. "This is Sandy." The small man waved merrily at her. She barely managed to wave back. Jack, satisfied with this, moved her on to the Easter Bunny. "You've already met him once, but this is Bunny."

"Bunnymund," came the deep, Australian accent as he nodded her way. She couldn't help but notice the way he eyed her, as if he were analyzing her. The hairs on her arms rose up once she saw that she wasn't just imagining it. The oversized bunny rabbit was _analyzing_ her . . . while painting an egg!

Finally, Jack moved her over to North. "And here's North again."

North, oblivious to how badly the female was taking all of this, bent over and took hold of her hand, shaking it. "Vonderful to meet you, Samantha!"

"Y-Yeah . . ." she croaked out and then turned her head to look back at Jack. Her eyes said everything she was thinking: _Can we leave now?_

Remembering back to their earlier deal, Jack rolled his eyes and threw his staff back over his shoulder, still one hand on her shoulder just to make sure she didn't faint or run away. "I'll take Sam home now," he announced.

Sam breathed a sigh of relief.

"But, I'll bring her back tomorrow! Hopefully, we can get some more information out of her!"

Her heart stopped and her breath hitched. Yanking away from the ice spirit, she screamed, "_What_? We had a _deal_!"

"Only that you could go home," he pointed out. "I never said that I wouldn't bring you back."

Her hands bawled up into tight fists and she clenched her jaw. "_No_, you're supposed to leave me alone after this."

He smirked at her, bending over so that they were now eye-to-eye. "I don't remember saying that."

"It was implied!" she snapped at him.

"But not said. So, it's not part of the deal." Straightening back up and taking hold of her shoulder again, pulling her closer to him so that he'd have a tighter grip on her, he told her cheerily, "Tell everyone goodbye!" Before she had the chance to say anything, though, he flew up into the air with her now clinging to his form.

He recalled earlier when she had clung to him the same way she was now as they soared through the wind. "We can't teleport?" she squealed, digging her face into his shoulder so as to not be able to see what was below them.

"Hmm," Jack hummed thoughtfully. "I never thought you'd be the cuddly type."

"Shut up and get me home!"

He laughed. "Yeah, yeah."

By the time they had finally landed in front of her house, Sam was almost positive that school had been let out and the bus had already passed by. She was also pretty sure that she had been scarred for life and it wasn't even three o'clock yet!

"Admit it," she could practically _hear_ the smirk on Jack's face, "you had fun being kidnapped today."

Sam said nothing. She didn't even bother to turn around and face him. She was much too relieved to finally be home. Running up to her doorsteps, she realized that her backpack for school and been placed right next to the door. That was when she turned her head to look back to Jack Frost. He saluted her playfully with two fingers.

Biting her bottom lip, she picked up her backpack and opened the door to her house, casting one final glance back at Jack Frost, and then rushing inside of her house.

Jack stood there, casually leaning against his magic staff. Once the girl was safely inside, he looked around for any signs of life that he could possibly mess with, but saw none. Looks like it was time to pay Jamie a visit again.

* * *

_**Please leave some feedback! Thank you and have a wonderful Christmas (or Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, etc.)!**_


	6. Chapter Six

_**A/N: I have no proper excuse for not updating for these past few months. I apologize so much! Please forgive me! Feel free to kill me, but let me finish this story up first! Thank you to those who will continue to read this even after that long hiatus! It really, truly, deeply, honestly does mean so much to me to see feedback for this, even after I haven't updated in at least three months. Thank you so much! Please leave a review for this chapter, telling me what you think. Thank you!**_

* * *

_Chapter Six_

_Almost Normal_

* * *

Sam was lucky enough to get to the house phone in time to delete the message the school had left about her not attending that day, but she still didn't know if she wanted to face her mother. All of this just seemed crazy to her — more than just crazy, absolutely psychotic! She had just met the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman! Jack Frost now knew her name! And the worst thing? She now had to force herself to remain unbelieving. Not believing in these childhood heroes was beginning to become difficult for her.

Wait, no, that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that she still had to go to work. Great.

She let out a loud, exhausted huff as she pushed her back off of the door she had fallen against the moment she had shut it and lost sight of her stalker. This day was just never going to end! Sam made her way to the bathroom, turned on the sink and splashed some water into her face and then took a good look at herself in the mirror. Why did this have to happen to her? There wasn't anything special about her at all. There was nothing about her that stood out! She was average height, made average grades in school, had an average job where she put in an average amount of effort into her job performance, and she had average parents. Sure, they were divorced, but whose parents weren't nowadays?

Even her appearance didn't stand out! Her hair was short, jaw-length, and insisted on flipping up at the ends despite her trying everything to keep them down, her eyes were a muddy brown, and she wore whatever she could find in her room that wasn't dirty or smelt funky. _Why_ was she the one who had to see all of these weird people that no one else, besides kids, could see?

Sam shook her head and looked away from the mirror. She couldn't focus on that right now. She had to get to work and, hopefully, have a normal workday. Getting fired wasn't exactly at the top of her to-do list just yet. So, she tried to push the events that had just happened to the back of her mind (which was proving to be quite difficult, much to her despair) and she tried to treat the rest of the day like any other day. Her mother would come home late, possibly drunk depending on how well the night went, she'd make dinner for herself, take a shower, brush her teeth, and then she'd go to sleep and wake up to another boring day.

_Another boring day . . . until he kidnaps me again._

The distant conversation popped into her head where Jack Frost had told the rest of the Guardians that he'd bring her back the next day. Goosebumps popped up all over her arms and legs at this thought and she wasn't quite sure if it was from fear or excitement — most likely a sick mixture of the two. She mentally berated herself for even _considering_ looking forward to getting kidnapped again. This was all too terrifying. These childhood heroes weren't supposed to exist, her parents were supposed to play their roles and then eventually tell her that they weren't actually real and then she'd grow up as any other normal person would. Was this her losing her mind to losing her innocent childhood?

No, that possibility was out the window at this point. She had physical contact with the other guardians (and her personal space invaded). As far as she was concerned, no hallucination is supposed to be that strong unless one had a multiple personality disorder, which she had already been checked for in the process of her mother trying to get rid of her. She wasn't crazy, as much as that option was more preferable to seeing invisible people running around.

_Doesn't that pretty much define me as 'crazy'? But, they're actually there. So, what's it called when you see things that no one else can see but they're actually there? This is too much like a supernatural novel for me. I didn't sign up for this._

Sam let out a loud huff, blowing some of her blond bangs out of her eyes. She had to figure out how to write a note to the school to excuse her absence without her mother finding out. She supposed that she could just say that she started puking everywhere and that would be enough. So, that was what she would go with. Quickly before she left for work, she was sure to write a note as professionally as she could and signed her mother's name at the bottom of the note, stuffing it into her backpack's pocket and then rushing for the door.

Opening the door up only to be greeted with a wintery chill once again, Sam's face turned into an immediate scowl. She always hated the cold, but now she had a legitimate reason to. Stepping out onto the porch, she paused. Looking back up to the sky, she noticed white sprinkles of snow beginning to fall to the ground. Her stomach churned.

_Jack Frost . . . you, good sir, are a bag of douche._

Huffing again, she closed and locked her front door and stuffed her hands under her armpits as she made her way onto her normal pathway to work. Once again, she attempted to push the whole Guardian fiasco to the back of her mind and she tried to focus on her job. Mr. Goodwin would likely fire her if she even showed the slightest disinterest in her job today. He was kind man, but he had a zero tolerance rate for those who slacked off, especially if they were a bit on the psycho side. Sadly, he probably thought she had lost her mind at this point.

Once outside the door to the shop, she took a deep breath in and vowed to work her hardest that day, and walked in.

* * *

Jack tapped lightly on the window, hoping that it'd be enough to make the boy aware of his presence without causing too much of a ruckus. The left side of the shades were pushed aside by a young boy who couldn't have been older than ten. He had short, chestnut brown hair and freckles dotted all over his cheeks. He was currently in his pajamas and his eyes were droopy, indicating that he had actually gone to bed at his bedtime that night.

"Jack?" the boy rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and blinked as he stared at the winter spirit outside of his window. Then, it clicked. His eyes widened in excitement and he squealed, "_Jack_!"

Jack, knowing the boy wouldn't be able to hear him from the other side of the window, was motioning for him to be quiet, which shut the boy up innocently. His hands flew to his mouth and there was an awkward silence in which he listened for anybody to come and check on him, but no one came. The young boy breathed a sigh of relief and opened up his window carefully, flinging himself at the winter spirit. Jack caught him awkwardly, trying not to do a back flip off of the window.

He let out a hearty laugh. "Hey there, kiddo! How you doing?"

The boy gave him a final squeeze before pulling away and opening his mouth, pointing to a spot in his mouth where a tooth once was. "I lost a tooth last night after you dropped me off! The Tooth Fairy left me a bunch of money!"

Jack seemed impressed. "Did you pull it out yourself?"

The boy shook his head and Jack noticed how he avoided eye contact with him when he said, "Nah. I ran into a wall."

Jack stared long and hard at the boy. "Jamie, even you're not that clumsy."

Jamie shrugged and changed the subject, his bright grin returning to his face. "Can you tell me some stories?!"

Jack decided to drop the subject, making a mental note to follow Jamie to school to make sure no one picked on him again. "Don't you want to go for a sleigh ride again?" he suggested, a mischievous grin creeping its way onto his face.

Jamie shook his head and sent a cautious look over to the door, then leaned in closely to Jack as if he were going to tell him a secret. In a hushed whisper, he explained, "Mom suspects that I'm up to something. She checks in on me randomly."

Jack gave a bored frown, recalling his earlier conversation with Sam when she told him about her parents. "Why do parents suck so much nowadays?"

Jamie gave him a confused look. "Huh?"

The winter spirit dismissed it with a casual wave and hopped into the boy's bedroom, staff slung over his shoulder as he went to sit on the edge of the boy's bed. "Okay, I've got a story or two to tell you, I guess. Tomorrow, though, you're going on a sleigh ride that will put rollercoasters to shame."

Jamie practically jumped over to his bed in excitement, sitting cross-legged on the bed. "Deal! Now, tell me an adventure you've had! And not one you've already told me about!"

"Uh. . . ." Jack scratched the back of his head, unsure of what to tell him. He hadn't had any real adventures since the last story he told Jamie. Sam popped into his head and he decided to go with that. "I met this really weird girl."

Jamie frowned. "Ew. . . ."

Jack laughed and ruffled his hair up. "Not a _girl_ like _that_. She's an unbeliever who can still see me."

This caught Jamie's attention. His eyes sparkled with intrigue at this newfound information. "Really?! That can happen?!"

The teenager shrugged. "I didn't know it was impossible until three days ago, neither did any of the rest of us. We were all pretty shocked when we found that she could see us, despite not believing in us." He snickered at the memory of when she first saw him. "In fact, she faints every time I'm with her."

Jamie laughed. "Where did you find her?"

"Here, actually," Jack told him. "She doesn't live that far from you."

Jamie seemed surprised by this. "Really? Who is she?"

"She said her name was Samantha Coleman."

Jamie thought for a moment. "I don't know her." He frowned, then his face lit back up as he looked back to Jack. "Can I meet her?"

Jack shrugged. "Sure. Just make sure you don't invade her space. She likes to hit."

Jamie giggled as if he thought Jack was joking, which he most definitely wasn't. She was pretty weak and her hits never hurt him, but he didn't like the image forming in his head where she would keep hitting Jamie for trying to hug her and bombard her with questions. That was another thing he noticed about her — she absolutely hated questions. It could be that she only hated questions about herself, but he definitely noticed this by then.

Jamie noticed how the winter spirit had zoned out in thought. "What happened with her?"

Jack came out of his daze, for a moment unsure of what Jamie had asked him. "Huh?"

Jamie raised a curious eyebrow, giving him a suspicious look. "What happened with her?" he repeated.

"Oh." Jack thought back for a minute. "Well, she can see us and none of us know why because she thought we all didn't exist." Three days ago popped into his head again and he let out a low chuckle. Then, looking to Jamie, he said with complete seriousness in his voice, "She's really annoying. All she did was scream and faint. I didn't even get a name out of her until today! Yesterday, when I officially got to talk to her, all she did was try to convince herself that she was crazy and that I wasn't even there."

Jamie seemed amazed by this. "Wow. . . . She doesn't sound like she likes you much."

In his defense, Jack was quick to say, "She's like that with all of the Guardians. Now, anyways . . ." Jack went on to explain everything else to Jamie, who seemed fascinated with the subject about as much as North was. He was sure to leave out the parts where he 'stalked' her, though.

* * *

Sam couldn't believe it—she had made it to third period and not a trace or hint of fantasy had popped up into her day. That morning she had left the house and the day felt warmer than it had been the previous three days. She got on the bus, got to school, went to her first class, and waited. Then, she went to her second class and waited some more. Now, she was beginning to feel antsy. There was no way she had imagined the past three days, had she?

Just to be sure that it was, indeed, Tuesday and she hadn't just dreamt all of Monday's events up, she looked over to Stacy, who sat next to her. "Hey," she mumbled feebly, scared out of her mind of the possibility that she was insane (which was ironic, as just yesterday she had been hoping that she was crazy), "Is today Tuesday?"

Stacy nodded, not looking up from her book. This was enough for Sam.

Leaning back into her chair and glancing back up at the clock, Sam thought of all the things she could be doing right then rather than sit there and listen to her teacher lecture about science. She could be at work, which she truly did enjoy. She could be at home asleep. She could be eating. She could be flying away on a magic stick to — wait, no. That wasn't too fun.

_Bad Sam! You know better than to think psychotic things like that are fun! You don't even know if yesterday's events even happened in the first place! You're going crazy, remember?!_

Still, she figured being crazy would be better than sitting in this classroom right now. Jack's teasing for her wanting to go to school rung in her head and she rolled her eyes. Why had she wanted to go to school again? Oh, right. A stalker who happened to be a Guardian kidnapped her. Right.

The normalcy of the day terrified her and felt so foreign. By the time she had gotten home, her eye was twitching insanely and her body was shaking. Had she gotten addicted to the adrenaline of fear to the point where she was already having withdrawals? It sure felt like it.

_I don't have work today. I suppose I could just go take a nap. That should help._

Sam opened the door to her bedroom and froze.

"Hey," Jack waved at her, but his eyes remained focused on the novel _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_. "This book is pretty old. I didn't think you'd be one to read these sort of novels, given that you scream anytime anything unusual happens." That was when he sent a teasing smirk her way.

Sam remained frozen at the door. Jack Frost was in her bedroom — going through her books — teasing her like how he did everyday — acting all casual as if he weren't some creepy kidnapper, stalker, and pedophile. She had a perfectly normal day going and then he showed up like this. Granted, she _had_ been paranoid all day knowing that at some point he was bound to show up to kidnap her again, but still.

Jack put the book down and waltzed over to her, grinning like a Cheshire Cat. "You ready to go?"

She didn't answer him. She didn't even _blink_! She just stood there, staring at him wide-eyed.

Jack poked her forehead lightly, hoping that the chill would give her some sort of reaction. It worked. She flinched at his touch and her hands flew up to her forehead where he had poked her. "Don't do that!" she whined.

That was better. He ruffled her hair up. "C'mon, let's go. I sacrificed a bunch of my entertainment today to let you go to school, so don't fight me on taking you back today."

"Oh, how considerate of you," she grumbled at him, glaring knives into his retreating back. He was walking over to her window, expecting her to follow. "Why do I have to go back there? Can't you just leave me alone?" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop herself.

Jack stopped and turned around to her. "Don't be a drama queen. This kind of thing has never happened before so we need to get it checked out."

Sam stood still in her spot, still making no move to join him at the window. "But, why? Since I'm the only case, what's the harm if it doesn't happen again?"

Jack let out an annoyed, irritated sigh. "Because, we don't know if it will happen again. Plus, you're probably in danger anyways so it'll be best to just hang around us as much as you can." Jack noticed how she went a sickly pale. "What?"

"Danger?" she squeaked out. "Why am I in danger?"

Jack chuckled, making his way back over to her. "You'll only be in danger if others find out about your condition. We don't think anyone else knows, but things could get bad if they do and we just don't know. Now, if you want to risk it, you can just—" she rushed past him to the window.

"C'mon Frosty, let's go find out what's wrong with me!" Sam stood on her window, waiting for him to join her.

Jack laughed at this. "What's with the sudden determination?"

Sam narrowed her eyes at him. "Shut up. I don't want to die."

Jack shook his head, still chuckling at her response and he hopped out of the window onto his magic stick. He offered her his hand, which she hesitantly took and winced. Holding his hand was almost as bad as holding ice in your hands for an extended amount of time — it burned. Still, he helped her onto the stick without much trouble.

"You might want to hold onto me."

This caught her off guard. "Say what?"

He rolled his eyes. "Don't be a child. Wrap your arms around my waist like you were on a motorcycle with your boyfriend."

She stood her, wobbling from imbalance. "Um, I don't think so."

Jack turned around to face her. "Why not? It'll be fun to surf there! Not to mention, probably faster. Since we can't go too high without you freezing, we need to make sure no one has the chance to see you."

Sam remained stubborn. "No. I am _not_ holding onto you!"

"Why is there a problem?" Before she had the chance to answer him, his lips curled up into one of his mischievous smirks. "Are you shy?"

Sam's cheeks heated up in annoyance. "You'll probably enjoy it too much," she threw back at him.

"It's always nice to have a cute girl holding onto you for dear life," he said.

Her cheeks heated up even more from the compliment of being called 'cute'.

"But, that would only be if a cute girl were holding onto me." And with that, he turned back around.

Sam's mouth fell open. "_Excuse_ me?!"

Jack laughed and looked back at her. "Just hold on if you don't want to fall off."

She was about to start yelling at him, but she felt the stick wobble and she grasped onto him for dear life with a small squeak.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." And they took off.

* * *

_**Thank you for reading and please leave a review for this chapter to tell me what you think! Have a splendid, remarkable, awesome, happy, beautiful day! :)**_


	7. Chapter Seven

_**A/N: I'm going to be a bit busy this upcoming week but I'll try my best to get Chapter Eight uploaded next Sunday. I'm going to keep updates, as best as I can, to a chapter being uploaded every Sunday. But, this week I have to work to get some money for a limo for prom while working on keeping up with my schoolwork (last nine weeks!) so my time is going to be limited. Thank you for understanding and here's another chapter for you all! On a side note, this fanfiction WILL HAVE HINTS TO THE BOOK SERIES. I WILL DO MY BEST TO EXPLAIN EVERYTHING FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE BOOKS SO THAT YOU CAN ENJOY THE FANFICTION WITHOUT BEING TOO CONFUSED! And thank you so much for all of the lovely reviews on Chapter Six! It means so much! Please leave a review for this chapter!**_

* * *

_Chapter Seven_

_Stupid 'Fun'_

* * *

When Jack finally landed, Samantha felt as though she were out of breath, despite not having been screaming or yelling this time. Perhaps it was because she was more aware this time that she realized just how fast they were going and it was taking its toll on her. Still, she was grateful that he offered her his hand to get off the stick. Not that she took it.

Jack pointed a finger right between her eyes, "No throwing fits today, got it?" His tone was playful, but Sam understood that he was being dead serious.

"Don't do anything to throw me into a fit," she countered, walking by him and over to the yetis that guarded the door.

Jack chuckled to himself and came to stand next to her, grinning at the yetis. "Hey! Mind letting us in? We're here on Guardian business."

The yetis shared a look and eyed the spirit skeptically, but still allowed him and Sam access to the inside of the workshop. Jack took Sam by the shoulders and guided her inside, thanking the two yetis mockingly with a wide grin on his face. Sam, upon seeing the sight of the inside once again, felt weak to her knees. Why had she come back here, again? Oh, right. She had the possibility of being in danger. Right. Brilliant. Fantastic.

Jack and Sam made their way through the crowds of yetis and elves, taking their time as Sam took in everything around her. The sights of all the toys and yetis and munchkins (as she called them) left her breathless and in shock. Jack felt one of the corners of his lips curl up in amusement at this as he continued to lead her through the workshop, occasionally pointing out a sight he wanted her to see just for her reactions.

They arrived to the meeting room where the rest of the Guardians already were. When Tooth caught sight of them, she was the first to rush over and greet them. "Welcome back, Samantha! How are you today? Have you taken care of your teeth properly? Did you try flossing?"

Bunnymund looked over and saw the hybrid invading Sam's personal space once again, terrifying the poor teenager to near death, and he rolled his eyes, looking back to North and Sandy. "That one's a total nut."

Sandy and North were the last to notice the two entering the room. Sandy smiled and waved politely while as North let out a hearty, welcoming laugh. "Vhy! Velcome back, Samantha! Vas she much trouble to bring this time?" he winked at Jack.

Sam couldn't manage any words out as Tooth continued to examine her teeth, pointing out a few possible cavities that were forming and instructed her on what to do to stop them from rotting anymore. Jack held back a laugh as he watched this all play out in front of him. There couldn't have been anything more amusing than Sam's reactions as she stepped into the world of fantasy.

Casting a glance to the side at the winter spirit standing next to her, Sam caught the smirk on his face and glared at him. He was enjoying her pain and discomfort, wasn't he? She would have punched him out of spite and irritation, but the Tooth Fairy was keeping her in the same spot as she examined her teeth and gave her tips on how to take better care of them.

It was Bunnymund who finally intervened and saved Sam's personal space. "Give the girl some space to breathe why don't ya?"

Tooth, realizing what she was doing, pulled away from the girl. "Oops, sorry! I didn't make you too uncomfortable, did I?"

Sam, deciding to keep her thoughts to herself, just shook her head. Her pale face said the exact opposite. "No, um, i-it's fine. . . ."

Jack didn't allow the awkward silence, which was just about to fall on them, to start, "Anymore news on this?"

North looked so ashamed of himself that Jack nearly instantly regretted asking. "Not yet." Determination returned to his eyes. "Soon."

Jack nodded and looked over to Sam with a wide, teasing grin. "See? This mess will be sorted out soon enough!"

"And you'll leave me alone?" she looked him dead in the eye. "No more kidnapping me and bringing me to freeze my butt off at the North Pole?"

He pretended to have to think for a minute, causing her to turn red from annoyance. Just before she threw a punch at him, he flicked her forehead and said, "Yeah. Don't really want to lose my hearing, anyways."

Her life would return to normal. Sam felt somewhat relieved and excited at the thought of this and a part of her thought that 'soon enough' wasn't close to being 'soon enough'. She could go back to her normal teenager life, try to focus on school (she always promised herself to do this and then she'd actually get to school and forget about her self-made promise), focus on work, and then maybe work toward getting out of the town of Burgess. If she got away from Burgess, her risk of ever getting caught up in this nonsense again would surely diminish, right?

Then, there was another smaller part of her who felt tight from the thought of never getting caught up in all of this nonsense again. As much as she preferred her normal life, a little crazy felt . . . healthy.

_Stop it, Sam! That's a no-no thought! No more no-no's!_

Trying to get herself to stop thinking, she went for a different route of conversation, "Okay, so if you don't know anything about my situation, then why am I here?" Her arms crossed tightly over her chest as she distanced herself from them.

Jack took notice of this and, of course, felt inclined to mess with her some more. Wrapping and arm around her neck and pulling back over to his side, he grinned cheekily at her. "I told you already — your very life could be in danger!"

Sam was uncomfortable with how he said that so cheerily. "Well, then why don't you just stalk me like how you always do? I work five days a week and I go to school. It's not like you can keep bringing me here every day," she grumbled, refusing to look him in the eye.

"I could, it's just that it would suck for you."

". . . Don't even."

"Why? You going to throw a temper tantrum?"

"Can it, Frosty."

"We're back to nicknames now, Sammy?"

She glared at him. "_Don't_ call me Sammy."

He flicked her forehead once again. "Then don't call me Frosty, _Sammy_."

Before she had the chance to start yelling at him, Bunnymund rolled his eyes and said, "Would ya both can it? We needa focus on more important matters, like _why_ she can see us."

Sam, still having a glaring at Jack, murmured, "The sooner all of this is over, the better."

Jack's grin, during their little spat, had become more challenging and he look absolutely devious. It was making her even more uncomfortable than she had already been, which had seemed terrifyingly impossible. He still held onto her as he broke their eye contact and looked back to Bunnymund. "I haven't really seen you do anything about it."

Sam's eye twitched, feeling herself now caught in the middle of another glare fight.

Bunny growled, "'Ey, Frostbite, don't try to start a love quarrel with me, too."

Sam was about to snap that it wasn't a love quarrel in her defense, but Jack didn't seem to mind the comment and he spoke before she could, "That's the best you could come up with?" He snorted.

The tension in the air was suffocating by the time Sandy threw a ball of sand down in irritation to grasp everyone's attention. All eyes turned to him and the tension in the air died down immediately. Tapping his foot irritably, Sandy made a 'no-no' motion with his finger as he looked back and forth between Bunnymund and Jack. Sam had to stifle a giggle at the cuteness.

Sandy turned his attention back to the human teenager and sand started forming above his head as he made crazy motions with his hands. This confused Sam more than it was possible for her to let on. "Say what?"

Jack rolled his eyes, having learned how to read Sandy like the rest of them months ago. As if he were a professional at this, he told her, "He's wondering if you have any questions you want to get off your chest." Sandy made more motions with his hands and more sand pictures formed above his head. "He says we'll answer as best as we can."

Sam's mind went blank. She could've sworn that just a few minutes ago her head was filled with questions she needed answers to, but now that she had been offered answers she couldn't even think of one. "Um . . ." she trailed off, unsure of what to say. "I dunno."

"You don't have any questions?" North asked curiously.

One finally popped up into her head. "What am I in danger of?"

"Well," Tooth began nervously, "any spirit could be dangerous to you. We're not the only spirits, after all, but we are also not the only good ones."

Bunnymund felt the need to add, "Pitch Black is probably the most dangerous ya need to worry about." All eyes turned to him. "Don't act as if ya'll weren't thinkin' the same thing! Mother Nature saved him once, there's no stopping her from doin' it again."

The other Guardians had nothing to say to that.

"It is true that no one knows quite what she's thinking . . ." Tooth felt the need to agree with him. Turning back to Sam, she added brightly, "But, there's no telling if he even knows about you yet! There shouldn't be any troubles as long as you don't have any fears he can use against you!"

Sam's eye twitched as she tried to summon up one thing that _didn't_ scare her. She had never exactly been the bravest person in the world. Ever since she was young the smallest things could frighten her, and although she had mostly grown out of that, this whole 'Guardians' and 'spirits' scenario was beginning to weaken whatever sanity she had left.

Jack ruffled her hair up. "Yeah, Pitch isn't anybody you really need to be scared of. He's terrified of us anyways."

Sam couldn't help but think: _Yeah, of _you_. That doesn't even apply to me._

Instead of commenting on that subject, though, she just sighed heavily and ran a hand through her hair out of frustration. It was then that she realized that Jack still had his arm wrapped around her casually and she tried to pull away from him, but he didn't let her move. His wicked grin shone brightly down at her and she wanted nothing more than to smack it right off of him.

"You uncomfortable, Blondie?" he asked her teasingly.

Her cheeks puffed out in annoyance as she attempted to wriggle herself out of his grip, only to no avail. This caused him to only hold onto her even tighter, but it seemed as though he weren't even giving it much of an effort. That only made her more annoyed and more determined to get free of his grasp. None of the other Guardians seemed to notice this, though, as they chattered amongst themselves of possible enemies in other spirits.

"I don't think Cupid is much of an enemy. He's always so loving and carefree," Tooth mused as they went over the names of other spirits.

A woman appeared in a picture of sand above the Sandman's head with a question mark.

"Nah," Bunnymund disagreed. "Mother Nature never really picks sides, even if she has helped Pitch again."

"Ve don't know if she has, though," North pointed out. "He could still be veak and vulnerable."

Bunnymund nodded. "Yeah, but you never know with her. Still, I don't see what she'd want with the lass over there." He motioned with his thumb back to the teenager who was struggling with the winter spirit.

"Katherine vould never betray us, either," North added in, a small smile crossing his face at the mention of an old (_very _old) friend.

"Mother Goose?" Bunnymund scoffed. "Even if she wanted to, that kid couldn't be much of a threat anyways." Still, he seemed to recall the girl fondly.

After a while of debating, questions, and awkward silences, the Guardians deemed it alright to send Sam home. Before she allowed Jack to drag her out of the workshop, she added one more question, "Do I _have_ to come every day?"

North considered this. "For your better safety, it vould be best to have a Guardian vith you at all times."

Sam had a haunting thought that Jack already stalked her anyways, so she pretty much already had a Guardian with her at all times. However, she didn't want to give him a reason. So, she just stayed quiet and left the workshop with the winter spirit.

Almost as if he read her mind, the moment they stepped out of the workshop Jack turned to her and suggested with a sly grin, "How about I just continue to follow you around, just to make sure you're not getting yourself stalked by a psychopath?"

_Like you?_

Sam stood her, blinking. "Huh?"

Jack snorted, rolling his eyes. "The _last_ thing I want to do is lose my hearing, which will most likely happen if I bring you here every day. Besides, I've got blizzards I spread."

It took her a minute to comprehend just what he was suggesting before she weakly nodded. It was the closest to "_normal_" she could get right now. "Whatever. Just take me home."

Jack flicked her forehead lightly, but it was enough for her to flinch and pull away from him with daggers in her eyes. "Why don't you like to have any fun?"

"Excuse me?" she growled at him.

"You're so . . ." for lack of better word, he just went with, "_boring_."

Her face heated up. "I am _not_! I just like to keep my life normal!"

"And that's not boring?" he challenged her.

"No, it's not," she huffed. "Just because I don't fly around on a magic stick or have below freezing skin temperature does _not_ mean my life is _boring_!"

"What else do you do besides go to school and go to work, then?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

She had nothing to say to that.

He chuckled. "You need some more excitement in your life." Hopping back onto his magic staff like a surfboard once again, he offered her his hand. "You coming, _Samantha_?"

She frowned at him but didn't throw an insult back at him as she took hold of his hand and got back onto the stick, holding on tightly as they took off and went back to Burgess. When they reached the small town, instead of flying down to her house, Jack made them stop in the sky and looked back to the rather pale Sam.

He smirked in delight at this reaction from her. "You enjoying the view?"

At first, she couldn't force any words out as she stared down at the ground covered in snow. She was both frightened and amazed by what she saw. It was _beautiful_, but she was also well-aware of the fact that she could plummet to her death any second of lost balance. The ladder thought made her close her eyes again and covered her face up with his back.

Jack was displeased with this. "Oh c'mon! I won't let you fall! Just enjoy the moment, would ya?"

Sam, at first, refused to move in her frightened state. Just as Jack was about to give up, though, she slowly pulled her face away from his back and stared back down at the landscape below them. It was evident that she was still terrified of falling as she held onto Jack's waist with a death grip, but her eyes shone brightly with fascination and entrancement. She was shivering from the cold but her mind was mostly taken off it by the sight before her.

Jack could feel her shivering and lowered them down some, causing her to let out a yelp and stuff her face back into his back again. He rolled his eyes for what felt like the fiftieth time that night. "I'm just getting closer so that you won't freeze to death up here! Jeez. . . ."

Once they were lowered and steady again, Sam pulled away from him and continued staring down at the city below her. Her skin remained a sickly pale so Jack knew that she wasn't completely comfortable with the situation at hand still, but she definitely couldn't deny that she was having fun right now.

"See?" he said, teasingly. "Good things happen when you step out of your comfort zone for a bit and learn to _enjoy_ life."

This earned him a smack on the chest, although she quickly turned a bright pink when she realized just where her hands were and she pulled away from him. The swiftness of her movements caused her to stagger a bit and almost completely lose balance on the staff, but Jack was sure to grip hold of her wrist and steady her again. Holding her by the shoulders with his other hand, he stared down at her with a smirk. "Can't leave you alone for one minute, can I?"

Her face, already pink, burned with a fiery passion as she broke their eye contact and huffed loudly, "Whatever. Take me home!"

He snickered. "Alright, _princess_."

He turned back around so that he could surf the way back to her house and she returned to holding onto him tightly from behind. Once they were back to her house, he came to a complete stop and looked up to the recently-dark sky. "Oops, didn't think of how your parents would react to this. Do you need to make up a lie to tell them?" he asked, looking over to her.

Sam felt her heart stop for a moment as she looked over to the driveway of her house and saw no cars there. Faking a half-smile over to the winter spirit, she simply shrugged. "Meh, they won't worry too much about me. I'll just tell them I was at a friend's house or something."

This was enough to convince Jack that she'd be okay, despite her lie. Her mother was almost never home nowadays, always out on a date with a random guy. A part of her was jealous how natural it came for her mother to be so beautiful and charming to the opposite sex, but for the most part she felt as though her mother didn't even exist anymore. The only times she really saw her were in the mornings on the weekends and late in the night. As for her father, who knew where he was. Jack Frost, nor any of the Guardians for that matter, had to know this, though.

"Hey, Jack," she mumbled just before the spirit took off.

He stopped in surprise, grinning. "Want a goodbye kiss, princess?" he teased.

She scoffed at this. "No, I'm just wondering . . ." she trailed off, unsure of how to word this, "can we go look at another city tomorrow?" She couldn't even look him in the eye she was so embarrassed with her own curiosity of what lay outside of Burgess.

Jack's grin widened. "Finally interested in what 'fun' is, huh?"

She glared daggers at him.

He laughed it off. "Fine, fine. See ya!" And with that, he flew away to cause more mischief elsewhere as Sam stood there in shock, horrified at what she had just probably caused for herself.

* * *

_**Please leave a review for this chapter, telling me what you thought of it! Honesty is a virtue! :)**_


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